Birds of a Feather
by the-fairy-godmother
Summary: This is a semi-plot, semi-one shots about my OC Roxie, from my other story One and Only. If you haven't read it, don't worry, this could be a stand alone. WARNING: Chapter Six is rated as Mature due to explicit content. There is a sequel to this story coming.
1. Chapter One

Hi all,

I really don't know who would read this, but I thought I'd put it out there.

If you're reading my other story _One and Only_ , you would know about my OC Roxie, this story is just going more in depth about her story line, since I realised there was a story line there.

TFG

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Chapter One

One of the worst days, as well as one of the best days of Nosedive Flashblade's life on Earth started really badly.

First, his alarm clock didn't go off and this caused him to sleep in by two hours. Now, Nosedive and his alarm clock had a tenuous relationship at best. It didn't help that he threw the thing across the room at least twice a month. Hence, why the alarm clock decided to go on strike and not wake him up in time for training. This, normally, wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but seeing as they had a game on Friday night, they were doing extra practices all week.

The situation was remedied when Wildwing, the team's captain and older brother to the still sleeping duck, came in and yelled the nineteen year old awake. Wildwing was not in the best of moods recently, as several anniversaries were fast approaching and that always got him down. It was the anniversary of their arrival on Earth, of when he had ordered the destruction of the gateway generator, and when he had started a relationship with the love of his life, who he hasn't seen since the Saurians invaded. This was enough to get anyone down and cause them to be irritable, but Wildwing had other things on his mind too. He had begun to take a more active and distinct role in how his hockey team was being run. That included the practice schedule as well as all other managerial aspects of the franchise. As well as that, he had been the sole guardian of a teenager for the last three years. Hence, the terrible mood.

This terrible mood was beginning to grate on the teenage drake, as he seemed to always be the receiving end of his brother's anger. Not that he was trying to make him angry, but an eight am practice session for a nineteen year old was asking a little much. And when Nosedive tried to explain this, and the fact that it wasn't his fault that he overslept his brother just snapped.

"I don't care that it didn't go off! I want you upstairs, dressed, and on the ice, ready for practice in fifteen minutes! We're already running twenty minutes late waiting for you!" Wildwing shouted angrily, before turning on his heel and marching from the room.

Nosedive loudly fumed as he got dressed, forgoing the shower as he was already late. He then went into the large kitchen to try and find at least something resembling breakfast. Unfortunately, as he was running late the food that was made by Grin, as one of the few ducks that could cook, was already finished. Nosedive then looked in his personal cabinets and on his shelf in the fridge. And found nothing, as each of the ducks were responsible for stocking their own private pantry. Usually Wildwing would make sure that Nosedive did have some food on hand, but as he had been busy and in a terrible mood he had forgone that responsibility.

The lack of food didn't help Nosedive's bad day. And it didn't soften his growing anger towards his older brother. Not that it should be Wildwing's job to feed him, or make sure that he got anywhere on time. After all, Nosedive was nineteen, and every time Wildwing had tried to baby him recently, he would react badly to it. But, at that moment, everything was mounting and Nosedive felt like a little revenge. So, he took all of the cherry breakfast bars and one ice latte that belonged to his older brother. And instead of heading up to the rink, he sat down to enjoy his breakfast, until Duke came down to get the sullen teenager to come up to practice.

Now, Wildwing was not in the best moods and was being rather short with his younger brother. That was nothing compared to an older drake, who had woken up three hours ago to complete his own personal training. And who didn't appreciate being kept waiting any longer than five minutes. One of the downsides of being a master thief meant that timing mattered a lot. This meant that Duke wasn't too gentle when he grabbed Nosedive by the scruff of the neck and dragged him up to the rink.

The resulting argument and manhandling caused the second major issue of the day. Nosedive left his cell phone on the kitchen table. Normally, this wouldn't be too much of a problem as most of the ducks communicated with the communicators they wore on their wrists. This was also how their manager, Phil, and Captain Klegghorn of the Anaheim Police Force contacted them. This was not the case for Nosedive's human friends, Thrash and Mookie, they contacted Nosedive through the top of the range cell phone that Wildwing had bought him for his last birthday. Again, this normally wouldn't be a problem but as this was to be one of the worst days of Nosedive's life, it actually caused a major problem. As Nosedive failed to receive any of the seven calls, or fifteen messages sent by his best and only friends on the planet.

Once Duke had dragged Nosedive to practice, and Wildwing had lecture the teen some more, the ducks started on their team warm ups. Wildwing, along with their coach, Ian Duncan, put the ducks through a rigorous and intense training session causing many complaints from various members of the team. Especially the youngest member of the team. Which caused another argument between the brothers.

"Hey, just cause you're angry at the world and yourself don't take it out on me!" Nosedive eventually yelled at his older brother before storming off the rink and back towards the elevator. It was about lunch time now, and hopefully the catering crew had delivered their lunch. The rest of the team decided that now was as good of a time as any to take a break. So, everyone but Duke left Wildwing alone on the ice to cool off.

"Don't ya think you were a little hard on the kid?" Duke said as he watched the younger drake store all his hockey pads back into their designated spots in the locker room. The other drake was quiet for quite a long time before he answered with an affirmative.

"Listen, it's not my place to butt in, but maybe you could cut the kid some slack. I mean, he's a good kid and he has had a lot on his plate over the last few years. Same as you. Maybe you both need to take a little break, and just act your age?" Duke said before calling the elevator and intending to leave Wildwing to his solitary thoughts. That was until he heard a ridiculously forlorn cry coming from the elevator.

The two older drakes were then bowled over by Nosedive running full pelt out of the locker room in his street clothes. The teen didn't answer any of the calls from his team mate or brother, both of whom looked very confused and a little concerned. The two went downstairs to try and figure out what had just happened but the other ducks were equally as confused.

"He just looked at his phone, then screamed, then ran out. I have no idea what's up with that kid, he's being completely irresponsible and undependable. He really needs to grow up," Mallory said with a little bit more bite than was needed.

"Hey, now that's not fair. He was just a kid when we came here, and had to grow up quickly. He's allowed to have moments of immaturity," Wildwing said blandly, realising that he really needed to take his own advice. As soon as Nosedive came back he would apologise for his behaviour and try to make it up to him.

Nosedive on the other hand wasn't thinking about anything that was happening in the pond, only on the messages he had received. He ran clear across to the Anaheim Mall, hoping that what had been sent hadn't been true. Unfortunately, when he arrived he saw that it was only too true.

Captain Comics, the comic book store that had been his home away from home on this strange planet and had allowed him to meet two of his best friends, was closed. The door was locked and the lights were out. It looked so dead and lifeless. The only thing that gave any indication that someone had been there, waiting, was a note on the door, addressed to Nosedive.

Nosedive lifelessly picked up the note, and finally noticed the sin on the door. The sign informed everyone that Captain Comics was closed for the indefinite future, until new staff could be found and applicants should contact the owner of the store. This was all written in Mookie's elegant script, something that Thrash and Nosedive always teased her for.

The note that Nosedive eventually read was more informative. It explained to him that the two of them had been trying to call him all morning, but they couldn't wait any longer. That they had been accepted into the Rhode Island School of Design, and had decided to leave early to have a fun trip together. That they were sorry to have not been able to say goodbye, and they were going to miss him like crazy.

It was all Nosedive could actually take and he sank to the floor right outside the door of the closed store. His life sucked at the moment, and it was bringing him down. His schedule was jammed packed, he was always being yelled at by his team mates, his brother seemed to hate him and now his only friends were gone. Plus, there was the fact that he had been, forcible, away from home for three years with no hope of ever getting home.

Nosedive had no idea how long he spent sitting outside the store stewing in his own bad mood, until he heard a lot of cursing and loud noises. He looked up to see what or who was causing such a commotion, and saw that it was an Earth girl.

The girl was not particularly tall, but she was definitely eye catching. She was extremely curvy, but not fat. She was dressed in skin tight jeans, flip-flops and a gypsy top, but the thing that made her really stand out was her hair. It was long, wavy and was rainbow coloured. Now, bright colours were actually rather common hair colours on Puckworld, but he had never seen anything like this on Earth, so far. Plus, the tirade of curse was rather conspicuous and there was the matter that she was throwing everything within reach at the door of the closed store. If it had been any other day than the worst day of his life, then Nosedive would have been quite amused by the spectacle.

It took a few minutes for the rainbow girl to run out of steam and to run out of things to throw. And during this time Nosedive just let her get on with it, and release her anger against the closed door. Once she had finished she finally noticed the tall, brooding avian sitting forlornly by the door.

"Hey," The rainbow girl said sadly as she sat down next to Nosedive.

"Hey," Nosedive replied with equal sadness.

"You wanna go and get something to eat and try to fill our empty souls with really bad pizza instead of trying to feel this heartbreak and betrayal?" rainbow girl asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Sure, I know this really greasy pizza place, but the pizza is actually quite good and it's quite close by," Nosedive answered as he got up from the ground, and offered his hand to help up rainbow girl.

"Tribbiani's? I love that place, they make the best pineapple and shrimp pizza I've ever had. I'm Roxanne, Roxie, by the way," Rainbow girl, Roxie, said as she took his hand and stood up.

"Nosedive, Dive," Nosedive said, grabbing his bag, and the two of them headed off in the direction of the pizza place.

As usual the pizza parlour was completely empty and smelled of day old grease, but this meant that the only two customers could have a very in depth and private conversation. It turned out that they both were good friends with Thrash and Mookie, but it was only through sheer chance that they hadn't met before today. Every party that the couple had, for they were indeed a couple, both Nosedive and Roxie were invited, but one of them always didn't turn up. Nosedive actually remembered Mookie talking about her friend who was their college connection quite a few times, but never really thought about it. It seemed that Roxie was an exceptionally bright girl, who was already working on her Masters at Caltech. So, whenever she came across a comic book geek she would give them the address of Captain Comics and Mookie would give her a discount for every customer she sent their way.

It was also quite refreshing, Nosedive thought, to have someone who didn't really fawn over him for being a sports star. It turned out that not only was Roxie incredible bright, but she was also a very multitalented and independent individual. The rainbow haired girl had been working as a dancer for the last two years, and as a result had met some very famous people. Hence, why she wasn't gushing over meeting a world renowned hockey player and was just treating him like a regular person.

After the two had swapped life stories and found out they had a ridiculous amount of things in common, they then began to vent their frustration about Captain Comics sudden closure. They were both sure that the new managers would never be anywhere as good as Thrash and Mookie. Nosedive then began to tell Roxie about all the other things that had been bothering him for the last few weeks. Once he had finished he felt somehow lighter. Like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. It was nice to have someone listen to him when he talked.

It was during his tirade about how his brother had been using him as a punching bag that his phone went off for the sixth time since they sat down for pizza. Nosedive didn't really need to look at the screen to see who was calling him, he knew it would be Wildwing checking up on him. Yet, he still looked at it before turning it over, not off, and muttering about the evils of siblings.

"Don't even get me started on horrible sibling relations. I have four brothers and two sisters, one of whom is my twin! Try getting some attention in that household! None of them get me at all, and all think I'm a freak of nature. But, that doesn't mean I don't love them. I just don't like them very much. But, it sounds like you guys have been through so much, and love each other, and actually like each other. You really shouldn't write him off, just because he's going through a hard time, and taking it out on you. He's probably super demoralised and run down. Maybe you guys just need to spend some time together, outside of hockey and superhero-ing and just re-bond?" Roxie said while drinking her cola.

"Yeah, maybe," Nosedive said thoughtfully. After all, he knew that his brother was his biggest supporter and always looked out for him, and he shouldn't hold this bad mood against him. As Wildwing usually was quite mellow, and level-headed.

"Listen Duck-Boy, I have to get to rehearsals, but here's my number. Give me a call if you wanna vent or hang out again, kay," Roxie said, gathering up her bag and sweater, and taking out her wallet. But Nosedive refused to let her pay for her part of their meal. He assured her that he made a mint playing hockey, and since she was a college student she should keep her money.

Nosedive also decided that it was time to head home and talk to his brother about what had happened that day. So, he gathered up his things and walked Roxie to her car. The two then said goodbye and Nosedive watched the rainbow haired girl drive away with a smile on his beak.

When he got back to the Pond he was surprised to find it empty, apart from his brother who was alternating between pacing around the rec room and sitting down to work on the training schedule and contracts. It took him a few moments to realise that his younger brother had walked into the room, but when he did he jumped up and tried to say something, only to have it die on his beak. It was a nervous habit of his, getting tongue tied, though it didn't happen often. Nosedive often found this quite amusing, but the love of Wildwing's life, Ella, found the quality endearing. And right now, Nosedive had to agree with her.

"Where is everyone?" Nosedive eventually asked. Hopefully starting on a neutral topic would break the ice. And it seemed that Wildwing was thankful of the opening.

"They all decided to go out to eat. I think Tanya and Mallory are going to go to a movie, but Duke and Grin might be going to some classical music thing," Wildwing said looking down at his work.

"Listen, Dive, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have spoken to you the way I did, or treated you like that. I've been a pretty lousy brother, and a pretty terrible team captain," Wildwing said plainly, sounding a little run down and defeated. It seemed that Roxie was right about how Wildwing was feeling.

"I'm sorry too, I've been a right brat recently. Maybe we need to just re-bond outside of hockey?" Nosedive said with a slight smile on his beak, which his brother didn't completely understand. But he was so relieved that his brother had forgiven him that he didn't bother to think more about it.

So, the two brothers decided to order in some Chinese food and watch an entire horror movie franchise in one sitting. Something that they had done quite often when they first arrived on Earth. And, when the others arrived back from their evenings out they just left the brothers to their bonding. The two Flashblade brothers also managed to have a heart to heart, between teenagers getting gutted. It helped that Wildwing had taken off the Mask, so he was just Wing again, rather than the team captain. They made a deal to try and get in some sibling bonding time at least once a week, so that they could get all the things that were festering out before they had another major blow out.

By the time Nosedive got to his room it was a little after one in the morning, but he still felt wide awake. It had been such a draining day, and he felt like he was going to be wired for the next few hours. As he was undressing for bed and his comic book reading time he found the card that Roxie had given him, with her number on it. Nosedive regarded the card for a while before grabbing his cell phone and typing in a new message and sending it.

He doubted that he would get a message from her, but a few minutes later he heard the chirping chime of an incoming message.

"Hey, Duck-Boy, good to hear that everything worked out well," the message read. And, Nosedive couldn't help but send another one, which was answered fairly promptly again. Before he realised it he had had an hour long conversation through text message.

As Nosedive was lying in his bed waiting for sleep to overtake him, he couldn't help but smile to himself. Yes, this had been one of the worst days of his young life since arriving on Earth, but it also turned into one of the best. He had met a new friend and his relationship with his brother had deepened. All in all a pretty good day.

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Okay, this story doesn't really have much of a time frame or plan. Just chapters as and when I think of them.

please rate and review.

TFG


	2. Chapter Two

Hi, here is the second chapter, for some reason the first chapter loaded again.

Thank you to FishyFloat for pointing this out and proving that someone is reading this.

TFG

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Chapter Two

Nosedive loved extreme sports. The more extreme the better, in his opinion. It was often commented on by his team mates that he must be missing the part of his brain that warned him of danger. And this fact was often taken advantage of by their manager, as he knew Nosedive couldn't say no to anything dangerous, or anything that involved free food but that was another matter. It was a common occurrence for Wildwing to have to put a stop to some of his younger brothers more extreme adrenaline kicks. Unfortunately, there was a lot more ways to get an adrenaline high on Earth, especially in Southern California.

When they first arrived on Earth Nosedive had been an avid snowboarder, rock-climber and hang-glider, as those two were easy to do on Puckworld, especially in their district. Though, you could some more sports on the Southern Isles, but they had never had enough money to visit them. But, the weather conditions on Earth were so varied that it opened up Nosedive to a variety of new and exciting activities. It took him maybe two days before he discovered skateboarding and BMX-ing. And another week before he discovered surfing. Now, this wasn't that bad at first and Wildwing often joined his brother in this new sport, but it was when Thrash and Mookie informed Nosedive about severe weather warnings that things took a turn. It seemed that severe weather warnings caused bigger swells which caused bigger waves, which made Nosedive feel like he was flying.

No matter how Nosedive tried to explain this euphoric sense of worth to his brother and team mates none of them ever agreed to go with him. As, Nosedive had made a deal with his brother after a slight accident two months into their stay on Earth. He would not do any extreme sport without another person going with him. So far it had worked quite well, as Wildwing also enjoyed surfing, and Duke enjoyed climbing and rafting. While Mallory enjoyed gliding. And Nosedive was always able to persuade Grin to do anything, except surfing during a severe weather warning.

So, the night before the weather warning was due to hit, Nosedive sat despondently in his room. Until his phone chirped with a message. The sound actually managed to startle him somewhat, as he hadn't gotten any messages since that night a few days back when he had talked to Roxie about what happened with his brother. And a few messages from Thrash and Mookie telling him about their cross country road trip. Nosedive had assumed it was Thrash or Mookie again, with another update but he was surprised to find it was Roxie messaging him.

"Hey Duck-Boy! You like surfing right? You gonna hit the beach tomorrow?" The message read. Nosedive did remember telling Roxie about his discovery of surfing and how he felt so spiritual on a board, but he completely forgot that she also was a surfer. But he was sure that she wasn't as into it as he was. But this message gave him an idea. He had promised that he would never go surfing alone, but it was stipulated who he could go with. Surely, that meant that an invitation to go with humans would satisfy the terms of his promise to his brother.

Nosedive wasn't prone to scheming or being underhanded, not since his brother's girlfriend had handed his feathered ass to him five years ago, but he felt like he was doing something slightly illicit. He knew when Wildwing had made that deal with him it was an unspoken term that he was to be accompanied by a member of the team, not just anyone, and Phil didn't count. There was also the fact that he planned to sneak out before dawn so as not to have an encounter with his brother. But this sounded like so much fun, and Roxie had taken the time to not only invite him, but remember him as well.

It only took a moment for Nosedive's conscious to be squashed down and for him to send a message to Roxie confirming his attendance at dawn. The resulting text conversation confirmed time and location of the meet up, that someone else would be joining them and checking if that was okay. Nosedive didn't really have a problem with meeting new people but since they had arrived on Earth the team had limited their interactions to people who could be trusted, as they thought they could be easily taken advantage of. And, this had happened a few times causing great grief to a few members of the team. Yet Nosedive didn't really think about that when he talked to Roxie, he had a really good feeling about this girl.

The alarm woke Nosedive up at four am, well, four fifteen as he pressed snooze five times. He managed to get dressed almost silently, as well as sneaking out of his room with his board and gear at about five am. He was actually so impressed with himself that he had almost channelled a Duke-esque escape. Now, all he had to do was grab breakfast, load up the SUV the team had bought him after the Zamboni debacle, and go. When he walked into the kitchen Nosedive failed to do a quick scan of the room, thinking that no one else was going to be up at this time. He started to make himself a thermos of coffee and was munching on some cereal bars and fruit, which belonged to his brother.

"Going somewhere, kid?" came deep voice from the kitchen table, causing Nosedive to let out a very feminine yelp and drop the fruit that he was eating. He turned around quickly to find Duke sitting at the table, paper out and coffee in hand, regarding him with suspicious eyes.

"Duke, buddy, what, what you doing up?" Nosedive asked quickly trying not to look guilty as he scooped up the dropped fruit. It didn't help that his board and surfing gear were leaning against the wall, and Duke was present when Wildwing told him he couldn't go.

"Well, kid, I always get up 'bout this time. Ya know, to complete my own training. But you, you usually don't surface until midday if we don't have any training scheduled. Now, I'm guessing you're gonna go surfing, despite the fact that your brother, our team captain, had told you not to go, as no one else is stupid enough to surf in these conditions. But, I could be wrong," Duke finished taking a sip of his coffee.

"Well, yeah you are wrong! I did find someone to go with me, see!" Nosedive said incredulously, while thrusting his cell phone at Duke to show him the message from Roxie. Duke, was a little surprised by this turn of events, but he read the message and regarded the young drake in front of him. He was just a kid who was excited about having a new friend who shared his interests. How could he take that away from him?

"I'll tell Wildwing where you went, and who you're with, but don't blame me if he comes down there to drag your feathered butt home in front of all your new friends," Duke said looking back towards his coffee and paper, dismissing the young drake to go about his business.

Nosedive's thanked the older drake at least six times before he grabbed his gear and ran out of the room, still being careful and quiet so as not to wake anyone up. And once he had secured everything in his SUV his drove quickly to the meeting point on the beach.

By the time he arrived at the beach the sun was about to come up, revealing some of the most beautiful breaks he had ever seen. He really wanted to just get into his wetsuit and get started, but he was going to be responsible, or else Duke would be in trouble too. So, he sat and waited for Roxie and her roommate to arrive. Which didn't take too long.

"Dive, man, how long have you been here?" Roxie said, stepping out of a bright blue SUV. She was already half in her black and pink wetsuit. The top half was tied around her waist and you could see her black bikini halter top. Now, if Nosedive was at all interested in Earthlings, he would have said she looked rather sexy, but seeing as he was a duck, he just saw her as a new friend. Though he did give her a quick look up and down.

"Not long," Nosedive answered while allowing her to pull him into a loose hug.

"Dive, this is my roommate, Johner. Johner, this is Nosedive, Dive for short," Roxie said introducing the tall and muscular man next to her. He had closely shaven blond hair, with brown eyes and was wearing a blue and black wetsuit.

"Oh, wow, you're one of the Mighty Ducks! It's great to meet you, man," Johner said shaking hands with Nosedive. The two then spent the next twenty minutes talking about hockey, and how the Mighty Ducks stand in the NHL as a whole, and what were their chances of winning this year. It was a fairly in depth conversation, but again, Johner didn't really gush at meeting him. It was kind of like having a conversation with Wildwing about training.

Once they had finished they all grabbed their gear and headed towards the water, where they could see a few other die hard surfers. They even talked to a few, who all seemed to know Johner. It seemed the tall Earthling worked as a life-guard during the summer to make money. And that was how he managed to get a hold of a safety boat.

Nosedive made a mental note to tell his brother that his new friends were both reckless, but sensible. The plan was to have one of them out surfing while the others kept in the speedboat and made sure the one surfing didn't get into any trouble. They were also going to test a new gadget of Roxie's.

"So, I'm gonna attach this to the board and it will send both a continuous stream and stills every few seconds to the laptop on the boat. It doesn't have a very big range, as I had to substitute that to make it waterproof, but the pictures will be better than any other waterproof camera system on the market," Roxie explained as the attached the harness to Nosedive's board.

"That's so cool, where did you get it?" Nosedive asked as both he and Johner looked at the pictures that were already being sent to the laptop.

"I made it." Roxie said offhandedly. This of course opened up the conversation about Roxie's curricular endeavours, and made Nosedive feel a little bit disappointed in his own academic failings. The Saurians had invaded before he finished high school, not that he was a star student anyway. And once he was taken to the slave camps all thoughts of academics had vanished. He supposed he could have restarted once he arrived on Earth, but he would have to learn a whole new set of academics rather than what he had learned on Puckworld, and he honestly felt a little embarrassed asking any of his teammates for help.

It also didn't help that every one of the other ducks had some degree of higher education. Tanya, of course, had several PhD's, while Duke had a Masters. Mallory and Grin had both done their bachelor degrees, and Wildwing had almost finished his bachelors. That left Nosedive as the most uneducated member of the team, and so far it hadn't been a problem, but if he started studying then it would highlight the fact that he never finished high school.

"You know, it's never too late to study. My boss at the club never finished high school, had to drop out to support his girlfriend when she got pregnant. But, when the kid was older they did their GED and went to community college, before getting their bachelors at UCLA. Just something to think about. Okay guys, I think I'm done, let's get some waves!" Roxie finished with an enthusiastic smile, causing the two males to smile back. Nosedive thought that it was something to think about, but later. Right now, it was time to surf.

"So you just let him go!" Wildwing yelled incredulously at the calm, older drake in front of him.

Wildwing had awoken at six thirty, his usual time to join Duke on his morning run. The two had then had breakfast and Wildwing had gone to wake up Nosedive for an early morning skate. Normally he wouldn't wake his brother up early if they didn't have training scheduled, but he wanted to have time to just skate with him, like they did back on Puckworld, and this was the only time that the ice was usually free. But when Wildwing got to his brother's room he was shocked to see that the young drake was gone. Then he remembered the weather warning and instantly knew that the immature duckling had ignored his warning and gone out anyway.

The young leader was just about to run out and find his wayward brother when Duke came up to him and asked what was wrong. That was when Wildwing found out that Duke had spoken to the teen that morning and had let him go out. And, due to the raised voices, the rest of the team had come into the kitchen to find out what was happening.

"He's a big drake now, he can take care of himself. Besides, you made the condition that he can only go if someone goes with him. Well, he was meeting that new friend of his there. So, he really didn't do anything wrong," Duke continued casually, still reading his book and sipping his coffee.

"Yeah, but, but still, he, he should have told me!" Wildwing stammered, obviously realising that he had lost the right to be angry.

"Look, Wing, the kid's growing up, and he was so down bout his weird friends leaving, and he seemed so happy bout meeting this new one, that I don't think any of us would have stopped him. You just have to give him some slack and hope that you at least taught him something. Come on, let's get some sparring done, might get rid of this pent up rage you've been carrying around lately," Duke offered with a one sided smirk on his beak.

Sparring was actually a good idea, as it would prevent Wildwing from worrying too much about his baby brother. Sparring then lead to one on one practice, then to lunch, then to a meeting with Phil. It seemed that Duke was doing everything he could to keep Wildwing from worrying too much about his younger brother.

It was around dinner time when Nosedive showed up in the rec room, obviously exhausted but happy. He dumped his stuff in the doorway and shook out some of the sand from his mane before sending a goofy grin to his teammates. Everyone tensed, waiting for the initial explosion.

"Where have you been?" Wildwing said, standing up and coming round to confront his brother.

"Surfing, Duke said he was gonna tell you, didn't he?" Nosedive asked, slightly bracing to receive his brother's ire.

"I knew that, but it's seven pm. You couldn't have been surfing all this time? And is that alcohol I smell?" Wildwing asked coming close enough to smell the beer on his brother's breath. Now, this really did make him angry, as he knew Nosedive drove to the beach and he thought his brother was smart enough not to drink and drive.

"Yeah, I had a few beers at Roxie's apartment. As well as showering, but I still took half the seafloor with me. And I'm would've been home sooner, but the taxi driver wanted some pictures, and so did, like, all his friends," Nosedive said with a smile as he took some of the curry that was on the table. This at least made the room as a whole feel slightly better, knowing that the kid didn't drink and drive.

"Well, why didn't you call and say you were going to be late?" Wildwing asked, once again running out of steam.

"That's my bad, I was just having such a good time that I forgot to call," Nosedive said. And, as if it heard him, his cell phone began to ring. The phone was answered by Duke who was closest to the device and had both his hands free, as Nosedive had both hands full of food.

"Hello?" Duke said curiously to the person on the other end.

"Hey, sorry, I must have the wrong number," a very feminine voice answered.

"Don't worry sweetheart, you looking for Nosedive? His hands and beak are full of food," Duke said with smile to the very pleasant voice.

"That's okay, put me on speaker?", "Put her on speaker!", both Nosedive and the feminine voice said at the same time. Duke, of course complied, but was a little taken aback by the stereoed request.

"Roxer-roo!" Nosedive shouted across the room in the general direction of the phone.

"Duck-Boy, listen, I'm in class till four tomorrow and working at six, so you'll have to come by between then to pick up car, tis cool?" Roxer-roo said joyfully.

"No, can do Roxer-roo, got practice till seven," Nosedive replied.

"Well, then how bout I keep it in my parking place until dinner on Sunday?" Roxer-roo answered, causing all the ducks to mouth "dinner" to each other. They had no idea that Nosedive actually had someone to make plans with.

"Coolio, see you then!" Nosedive yelled.

"See ya!" Roxer-roo replied.

"Right, I'm gonna go shower then sleep, I'm wiped. I was up at like four this morning!" Nosedive said, shoving the last of the food into his beak before grabbing his gear and taking off in the direction of the accommodation wing.

"Well, that was interesting," Mallory said, breaking the silence.

"Hope-hopeful-hopefully, a lot less l-l-loony than Thrash and Mookie," Tanya said.

"Certainly sounded nicer. Hopefully it'll do him some good to have someone his own age to talk to," Duke chimed in.

Wildwing could only nod along, and hope that his brother didn't get hurt. So far they had been quite lucky on Earth with the friends they made. Though there were a few instances where they had made a friend and then that new friend had betrayed them by selling stories to the tabloids. It had actually caused a little bit of heartbreak to Tanya and Mallory, whose former love lives were explored in some trashy magazine. Hopefully this girl was sincere.

It didn't take long before Nosedive and Roxie became really good friends. They messaged each other almost every day, to the point where Nosedive couldn't go anywhere without his cell phone, to make sure that he wouldn't miss a single message.

The two would meet up fairly often, to share really bad take out or to go surfing. At first, it was just during the day, but then they started to go to movies together as well as shopping. Then out to bars and clubs, to the point where every once in a while Nosedive would be seen in the social pages of magazines and newspapers.

The first time Nosedive appeared in the papers, having been seen at a club opening was a little bit of a shock. Especially since Phil had come in to the kitchen, slammed the open paper down in front of the ducks and then demanded an explanation. It also didn't help that Nosedive was underage on Earth.

"My friend, Roxie, got us on the VIP list," Nosedive said with a smile, before commenting how good he looked with his hair tied back and in the clothes that he and Roxie had bought that weekend. The other ducks who looked at the photo had hoped to see a picture of this girl, but the photo was focused almost entirely on Nosedive.

"Well, if she does it again, get me in too! I've been wait-listed for this place for months!" Phil shouted angrily before storming back out the way he came. The rest of the team then demanded a further explanation, as they had assumed he had gone out for a movie, rather than bar hopping. Nosedive did assure his brother that he was sensible, didn't drink to excess, and was very friendly and cooperative if anyone asked for a photo or autograph. And luckily, that was what was written underneath the photo too, that the Mighty Ducks left-winger had been remarkable friendly and approachable and encouraged everyone to support the team at the next game.

Of course, it wasn't always the case that Nosedive didn't drink to excess or even made it back to the Pond at all. Though, the reports that followed always had him in a positive light, even if he was drunk. If he did get too drunk on a night out, he would always call and say that he was crashing at his friend's apartment and be back in time for training. So far, he had not disappointed his older brother. Although, he wasn't always quite as chipper as he could have been.

This didn't mean that Roxie was a solely negative influence on Nosedive.

About two months after Nosedive had met her the rest of the team had gone out shopping for something to wear to a black tie sports dinner, and left Nosedive at the Pond. The teen had recently purchased something very suitable on a shopping trip with Roxie. When they arrived back at the Pond it was to find Nosedive in the rec room, pencil and notepad in hand, making notes from various textbooks. The teen had his headphones on so didn't notice that his teammates had arrived back.

"Dive?" Wildwing said loudly, startling the teen and causing him to look down sheepishly.

"What is all this kid?" Duke asked, curious at what the kid was doing.

"Is this GED prep work?" Tanya asked picking up one of the books that were on the table. And she was right, it was a GED prep pack, as well as additional textbooks. And Nosedive seemed rather embarrassed to have been caught studying.

"Are you going to take the GED?" Wildwing asked proudly, sitting down next to his brother. He had actually mentioned the idea of Nosedive taking the GED a few times, since he didn't get to finish high school, but each time the teen had been very dismissive.

"Yeah, well, I've been thinking since you all have done college and stuff, maybe I should at least finish school. And Roxie said that if I did well on the GED I could go to community college and possibly to real college after that," Nosedive answered looking back at his notes.

"Roxie said?" Mallory asked sitting down across from the brothers.

"Yeah, well she's at Caltech now, and Johner's at UCLA. And, well, I'm kinda sick of feeling stupid. Me and Roxie have been doing prep for the last couple weeks, and she's gonna have me do a test so we can see what I really need to work on. In fact, I'm meeting her in like half an hour. Practice is at six, right? Cool, I'll see you then," Nosedive said, gathering up his books and notes, and heading out the door.

"Alright, who the hell is this girl?" Mallory said incredulously. She couldn't believe this change in the kid. He was actually acting mature and considerate. He was still the same, reckless, goofy kid they all knew and tolerated, but he was actually growing up too.

"This girl must be an enlightened and caring soul to have inspired such a change in our young friend. She must have some seriously good karma coming her way," Grin said serenely. He was quite glad that his little friend had found a kindred spirit, and did not resent this girl for taking his friend away from him. It had obviously had had a positive effect on Nosedive, and he was looking forward to meeting this girl.

"Or he has a crush on her," Duke commented slyly, causing a very loud reaction from the rest of his teammates.

"Oh, come on, if he was doing this with a female duck you'd all think the same thing. Why wouldn't he have a crush on an Earthling if she was hot and they had a lot in common. Besides, you have to admit, after three years, some of these Earthlings are looking rather good. And, they seem to be quite compatible, if you know what I mean," Duke finished with a smirk. This caused everyone to throw whatever was handy at the older drake to get him to stop talking like that. They were all starting to feel the strain of three years of enforced celibacy, but it seems Duke had actually gotten to point of relieving himself while watching Earth porn.

Wildwing didn't know what to think. It was obvious that Roxie was good for his brother. The teen had been rather sullen and moody that last year, they all had really. But now, he was upbeat, he was growing up and taking more responsibility for himself. And he was even thinking about going back to school for higher education, not just to finish high school. Even his brother's new social life was a positive step, it was something a nineteen-year-old should be doing. Going out with people his own age and having fun, finding out who he was. Roxie was definitely something that his brother needed and Wildwing really wanted to meet this girl who had inspired such a change in his brother.

* * *

please rate and review, it makes me happy and more productive.


	3. Chapter Three

Hey,

here's the next chapter.

TFG

* * *

Chapter Three

It was another few months after they first met before any of the ducks met Nosedive's new best friend, Roxie. And that was an evening that they'll never forget, as she was nothing like what they were expecting.

Over those few months Nosedive regaled the rest of his team with the stories of his great exploits with Roxie. And sometimes they saw them in the morning paper. It was actually quite entertaining and the rest of the team was beginning to get quite a picture of the girl, if not an actual picture. And this was what was bothering them. After all this time they still hadn't met this girl, or even seen a picture of her, it was like Nosedive was trying to keep her a secret. A very badly kept secret, as he couldn't stop talking about her.

The team had hoped that Nosedive would eventually bring her round to watch one of their games, so they could meet her afterwards. But so far that hadn't happened, and eventually Mallory asked him why. That was when Nosedive explained the only downside he had found to his new friend. She didn't actually like hockey. This caused a cry of outrage amongst the team, after all who didn't like hockey?

"We actually made a deal once, when I go to the ballet with her, then she'll come and watch a game," Nosedive said over dinner.

"But, none of you have gone to see the ballet," Duke said plainly, as he had been trying to get his team mates to go with him to watch the ballet for years. This was one of the things that Duke found that he enjoyed just as much as he did on Puckworld. Plus, he'd always had a thing for dancers. And it seemed it really didn't matter about the species, they were still hot.

"Exactly!" Nosedive said, pointing his pizza slice at Duke.

After dinner all the ducks sat down in the rec room to watch a mutually agreed upon movie, which was an unusual occurrence in of itself, as all the ducks had different tastes. But, Wildwing had decided the team needed to spend more time together and Grin had suggested dinner and a movie. The larger drake had then made the suggestion of renting _The Mummy_ , which he claimed had everything they all liked, action, adventure, romance, mystery, science fiction, fantasy. It was actually quite a good bridging movie. They were then going to follow it up with _The Spy Who Shagged Me_ as it had been recommended by everyone on their youth affiliated team.

The team had a collection of goodies spread out which they were all going to over indulge in before the dietician arrived next week to strip their kitchen of anything tasty or alcoholic. And they were all actually looking forward to spending a quiet Friday night in as they had not had any time together, just socialising for months. The Saurians had been defeated quite recently, so were unlikely to cause any trouble, there was no game or publicity stunt, and Nosedive was staying in because Roxie had to work. This impressed the rest of the team quite a lot, as the girl was determined to pay her own way through university rather than relying on her parents. So, as well as keeping up to date with her classes she was working part-time at one of the clubs' downtown which was how she had met so many celebrities. Though, Nosedive was a little cagey about which club it was.

At about ten thirty, after the first movie had finished, when they were all discussing various plot points, Nosedive's phone began to ring. No one even had to ask to know that it was Roxie, as she was the only person who called Nosedive, but it took maybe ten seconds for them to realise something was wrong.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Roxer-roo, calm down, I can barely understand you, what happened?" Nosedive asked, jumping up from the couch and moving away from the rest of the ducks. The rest of the team all exchanged worried glances at each other and the young drake, who was desperately trying to calm his frantic friend down. They all managed to catch single words like "stolen", "fire" and "apartment", and were able to piece together what had happened to the poor girl.

It seemed that Roxie had just received a call from her landlord while she was at work telling her that there had been a fire in the apartment below hers and that her apartment building had just burnt down. She had then gone to collect her clothes and change out of her work clothes only to discover that her locker had been broken into and all her stuff had been stolen. Including her keys and wallet, where she had just put all her cash tips from the last month. Her car keys were also missing, but luckily the car was still parked in the secure lot, but had been keyed quite badly. The girl was hysterical, as she now didn't have any money, any cards, nowhere to stay and no way to get there.

"Don't worry Roxer-roo, you can stay here," Nosedive had instantly said over the phone, causing all his team mates to look at him in shock. They had never had anyone stay at the Pond and only a few humans had ever visited. They hadn't even had Phil stay in the Pond.

"Dive…" Wildwing started before he was cut off.

"She's been robbed, her apartment's burnt down, and she has nowhere to go. What do you want me to tell my friend, go to a motel, which she can't pay for, as all her money and bank cards were stolen?" Nosedive asked simply with a determined look in his eyes. Everyone knew this look, but they were also surprised by how mature the boy was suddenly being. And how grown up he sounded. And it was all down to Roxie, she had had such a positive effect on the young drake that no one could deny the urge to come to her assistance. Even if they hadn't actually met her yet.

"Of course, she can stay until her apartment is fixed or until she finds somewhere else to live," Wildwing answered with a smile looking around the room at the other ducks who all nodded in agreement. This caused his younger brother to return the smile before turning back to his cell phone and telling his friend he was on his way to pick her up, before running out of the rec room.

"So, we finally met the elusive and mysterious Roxie, then," Mallory said once Nosedive had left to pick up the frantic girl. This of course opened the floor to conjecture about what their new guest was going to be like.

They all knew that Roxie was about Nosedive's age, around nineteen years old. They also knew that she was studying at Caltech, but had no idea what she was studying or how far through she was. They assumed that academics were quite important to her, as she had even inspired Nosedive to start studying again and he was never a very dedicated student before. And, she was taking the time to help Nosedive prepare for his GED. She was doing a good job too, as his mock test scores were actually pretty good and improving. They knew that she liked extreme sports, and, apparently, the ballet as well. She also liked comic books as that was how they met, mourning the loss of Captain Comics. So, the image they had come up with was a slightly athletic, punk, comic book nerd which was basically the human female equivalent to Nosedive.

The team was getting quite excited about the prospect of meeting this girl and seeing if their image of her was what they were going to get. So, they all decided to stay up and wait to meet this girl, thinking that it wouldn't take that long for Nosedive to go, pick her up and come back. But, at eleven thirty, Nosedive called his brother to tell him that they were going to be back late, as Roxie still had to finish her shift at work as there was no one else who could cover her. So, all the team decided that they were still going to wait up and meet her. And so, they continued with their next movie, and then another one, after that had finished.

It was just after one in the morning when they heard the conversation between the two teens in the elevator coming down into the main room. It was very loud and slightly stressed.

"And then, when the bitch got fired she threw a hissy fit before storming into the dressing room. I had no idea she was gonna take all my stuff! And that was when Billy, the bartender, got the call from the Mr Sneddon, my landlord telling him that the building had burnt down, and me and Johner had nowhere to live! Lucky for him the bastard is visiting his family back East, and doesn't have to deal with any of this shit. So, I ran backstage to get my stuff, and that was when I realised it was all gone out of the dressing room! And Ally came in to tell me my car had been really badly keyed and the tires had been slashed! All in all, the worst night of my life, so far!" A slightly hysterical but pleasant feminine voice said loudly as the elevator doors opened revealing Roxanne Moore.

"The worst day of your life, so far," Nosedive corrected with a grin.

"Optimistic pessimism, I liked it. Wow, a crowd!" Roxie said, startled by the crowd of avians of where staring, dumbfounded at her.

"Oh, wow, you guys stayed up! That's great! This is Roxie. Roxie this is Duke, Tanya, Grin, Mallory and Wildwing, my brother," Nosedive said, pointing everyone out to his friend.

"At last, this is the big brother! Dive's told me so much about you, I'm so happy to meet you!" Roxie exclaimed extending her sparkly red satin gloved hand to Wildwing, who just stared dumbfounded at the creature that was before him. And he wasn't the only one.

Whatever image of Roxie they had all envisioned was nothing compared to what was presented before them. She was a brightly coloured, sequin encrusted, scantily clad, rainbow haired creature that seemed too strange and exotic to be real. And it was enough to rob them of the power of speech or comprehensive thought.

"Am I doing something offensive?" Roxie asked Nosedive after a few moments of having the group of ducks stare at her offered hand. She even looked a little worried that she had done something very wrong.

"Nah, he's just being rude!" Nosedive said loudly, startling his brother and the rest of his teammates out of their trances.

"Y-yes, sorry, I, uh, I, I'm him, I mean, yes I'm his brother, and you must be R-R-Roxie?" Wildwing stuttered, completely taken aback by the girl standing before him who was wearing only enough to cover what needed to be covered. It was like a red, glittery, beaded loincloth-thing, over what appeared to be shorts, but they could be a thong and it was barely covering either the front or the back. The top she was wearing wasn't much better. It could hardly be considered a bra. It was a half cup, red sequined halter necked thing, just barely covering her nipples and hardly a half inch more of skin. She was wearing four-inch platform spiked heels that tied around her ankles and went up to the top of her calves, which put her at almost the same height as Nosedive. All in all, the image that was presented to him was going to create either an aneurysm or an erection. And Wildwing was pretty sure the former would win out first.

"Thank you so much for letting me stay, and I'm so sorry to come at this time of night. But this was the getting off work time, and I couldn't leave the club shorthanded on such short notice." Roxie said gesturing at her appearance without batting an eye, much to the very verbal disgust of Tanya and Mallory. Wildwing didn't know what to do. He had promised Nosedive that his friend could stay without question until her apartment was fixed. But now he had to deal with a very scantily clad human girl and two very annoyed ducks. As well as himself and Grin who was also looking uncomfortably at the said scantily clad girl. Duke, of course, had no problem with having a very attractive, nearly naked nineteen-year-old human dancer girl staying with him. And he was, of course, completely enjoying the flesh on show to him.

"And, uh, where do you work?" Wildwing finally asked, trying to make conversation and trying not to stare at the girls' cleavage. After all, he may not be human, but he was male. And, as Duke had pointed out to him many times, there were a lot of similarities between the two species.

"Oh, I work at the Birdcage! It's a cabaret club downtown. We do drag, burlesque and cabaret, and some aerial dance too. Tonight was one of the cabaret nights, hence the costume. Can you believe they wouldn't let me keep the feathers! They're the only things that actually cover anything! Oh god, my costumes! They're all going to be gone too! That's thousands of dollars gone because of some idiot and her candles!" Roxie answered happily at first, before becoming slightly concerned again. Nosedive of course gave her a big hug telling her that everything would be alright. During the hug the rest of the ducks got a very nice view of an almost bare backside. As a result of this the erection might have won out in Duke's case.

Duke then had a sudden recollection of actually seeing this girl before. He had visited the Birdcage before to watch the cabaret act and thought the dancers were exceptional. Unlike his fellow ducks, he could see the beauty and the similarity between humans and avians, and had no problem verbalising his appreciation of beauty.

"Oh yeah, I think I saw you dance the last time I went there, Rainbow Brite, right? You do the aerial dance and burlesque, right" Duke said with a leer offering his hand for her to shake. The girl accepted his hand and conceded that that was the stage name that she used when she danced, due to her brightly coloured hair. And again, this caused several dirty looks for both Tanya and Mallory who had just reached new levels at disgust at their teammate. Not just because Duke was being quite lecherous towards what was basically a teenager, but also because he admitted to going to watch girls dance around half naked.

"Might I say sweetheart, you're an exceptional dancer," Duke said huskily, bringing the girl closer to his body and away from Nosedives.

Luckily for Roxie, Nosedive came to her rescue fairly after that by quickly offering her his hockey jersey that he had left on the back of the couch. The offered garment almost went to her knees. She of course, thanked her friend for the assistance and began to follow the blond duck in the direction of the accommodation wing.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Wildwing called after his brother and his friend. He had no idea what their relationship actually was, but he was willing to guess that anything that looked like that was going to cause a severe testosterone driven reaction.

"My room, where else? Gonna get some sleep or watch a movie," Nosedive answered simply, his friend waiting patiently at his side.

"Oh no, uh, you can stay in Dive's room, Roxie, and Dive'll stay with me in mine," Wildwing said quickly. Realisation finally dawned on the teens when they realised why the older drake was acting so concerned. And both burst out laughing.

"Don't worry, Boss-Duck, there's no interspecies hanky-panky going on here," Roxie said with a smile once she had calmed down enough to form words again. Nosedive just nodding along as he hadn't stopped laughing yet. Surely, the others all knew his thoughts on humans, though he would make an exception for Roxie.

"Would you like there to be?" Duke then said with a grin, causing Mallory and Tanya to roll their eyes at the older duck. And cause Nosedive to abruptly stop laughing in disbelief that Duke was actually hitting on his friend.

"No thanks, old dude, I doubt you could keep up with me," Roxie said with a sexy smile and a wink before turning around and walking away with a definite sway to her hips while Nosedive burst out laughing again before following his friend out. Duke took it in his stride though, only calling after the retreating back that with age comes experience.

"God sake, Duke, she's young enough to be your daughter!" Mallory exclaimed after that little scene.

"And that is meant to deter me, how?" Duke replied, watching the retreating backside of the new girl. Much to Mallory's disgust who then started to yell at him that they were different species. Again, it did little to deter Duke's thought on the new girl. All the while Wildwing paced back and forth trying to figure out what he was going to do or say to the teens. The rest of the team all stayed silent in the rec room just trying to take in what had happened.

"You can't let that, that, creature, stay here!" Mallory eventually yelled at Wildwing. This then opened up a very intense debate about what to do that the ducks did not notice how long the two teens had been gone. The only thing that stopped the argument was the sound of singing coming from the accommodation wing.

Nosedive and Roxie entered the rec room a little after two and it was interesting entrance. They were both singing a song called " _Hot Patootie"_ at the top of their lungs while Roxie was on Nosedive's back. And the difference in the girl was unconceivable. She had obviously showered, as her hair no longer contained glitter and her face was free of make-up. It made a tremendous difference, giving her a youthful and fresh faced look. She was also now wearing a pair of Nosedive's sweat pants and his hockey jersey, both of which were swimming on her. But it made her appear less ethereal and more realistic and approachable.

"Hey, you guys not going to bed?" Nosedive asked after he dropped Roxie on the couch.

"Yeah, what are you guys up to?" Wildwing asked the duo.

"Well, we were gonna watch _Die Hard_ , then _Die Hard 2_ , have a little brain numbing movie marathon, since I have so much ridiculous stuff to do tomorrow. Wanna join? We can get pizza!" Roxie answered with a smile holding up two video tapes.

Wildwing, of course, agreed to this plan, as this would keep two hormone fuelled teenagers in a room full of adults. Though, after a ten minutes it was plain to see that he really didn't need to worry about the two teens. It seemed the two were really, just friends and that Roxie was almost exactly the same as Nosedive. The two fell into easy conversation and were always laughing together and just having a really good time in each other's company. So much that they didn't even notice when all the other ducks left them alone and went to bed.

When the other ducks awoke around ten the next morning it was to find Nosedive eating a huge breakfast of pancakes and fruit, while Roxie was yelling at someone over the phone. She was now wearing a pair of Nosedives jeans and one of his shirts. No one really paid much attention to what the girl was saying, but dug into the breakfast that Roxie had made and just let her continue with her call. All was going well, though it was a little quiet as some of the ducks were still a little uncomfortable around Roxie, until Tanya came storming in in a hysterical state. She was a little hard to understand but it seemed that she was saying something about numbers and her board.

"Oh yeah, sorry but I took the liberty, I noticed that you forgot to carry a decimal," Roxie said as she hung up the phone and took a seat, helping herself to some pancakes and coffee.

"You, you changed my math, I can't believe you changed my math, you, you, you had no… hey that fixed the problem I was having!" Tanya said once she realised the math now worked and the problem that she was having had just been miraculously solved.

"Well, yeah, you forgot to carry the decimal," Roxie said, clearly not understanding the problem. No one else seemed to understand either.

"How did you know?" Tanya asked, actually looking over the rainbow haired teen with awe and wonder.

"Oh, I'm using the same equation in one of the simulations that I'm running at the moment," Roxie said while eating her pancakes. This, of course, started the conversation between Tanya and Roxie.

It turned out that Roxie was exceptionally bright and was actually working towards her Master in Experimental Physics and Engineering. She had even worked on some equipment that had gone up to the International Space Station. Roxie had actually skipped almost the entirety of the public school system and was six years ahead of her peers. This meant that she had a hard time making actual friends, as people tend to be a little intimidated by her intelligence.

The girl was also quite responsible too. It seemed that she was determined to pay her own way, after receiving scholarships for her undergraduate. She did get a part scholarship for some of her Masters, but the rest she was earning herself. That was why she was dancing at the Birdcage, as the pay was good, the tips were excellent, and she also got insurance through work. And, since her mother was a dance instructor, she had been studying dance since she was a child, so it was nice to use one passion to help pay for another.

Once breakfast was finished both Nosedive and Roxie headed out, as Nosedive had offered to pay for some of the necessities that Roxie would need. It was actually a huge debate across the breakfast table, as Roxie didn't like the idea of letting her friend pay for her stuff, not when she could pay for it herself. She even tried to bring Wildwing in on her side, to try and get Nosedive to stop offering. Eventually, Nosedive pointed out that he made a lot of money playing hockey and due to his brother's insistence at fiscal responsibility, he had not spent it on anything ridiculous. He also mentioned that she needed her money to help pay for school, as it was very expensive.

"Just think of all the money you'll save on rent and food now! You could easily pay for the rest of the year, and not need to take any money out!" Nosedive said enthusiastically.

"I'm not going to pay rent! Or food! What the hell, Dive! I'm not some charity case you can just throw money at!" Roxie exclaimed indignantly, surprising all the ducks that had assembled.

"Don't worry, Little Friend, I'm sure Nosedive will let you pay him back, and the good karma we all get will be more than enough repayment," Grin said as he continued to eat his way through all the food that was on offer. He had to admit, he would allow this girl to stay with them forever if she cooked breakfast for him every morning.

"Fine, I'll let you pay for stuff, but this is only a loan, and a surfboard does not count as a necessity!" Roxie said firmly, with a hint of mirth. The two teens then strode out of the kitchen, leaving all the ducks to process all this new information. One thing was for sure, they had no idea what to expect next.

* * *

Please rate and review, it makes me happy.

TFG


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

It didn't take long before Roxie had become an integral part of life in the pond and an unofficial member of the team.

That didn't mean that she joined them playing hockey or crime fighting, but she did find ways to integrate with the group of alien ducks who had offered up their home to her in her time of need. It did help that she didn't wear her work costumes around the pond. She either wore some of the new clothes that Nosedive had bought her, or some of his old training gear that she enjoyed lounging around in. This gave her a more natural and friendly appearance, rather than the strange and exotic creature that had shocked everyone into silence. Though, she did get a delivery of new costumes a few days after her arrival. It was lucky that the club where she worked was so understanding and offered to pay for the replacements. And it was also lucky that she had recently had a new costume made so the costume designer and seamstress was able to whip them up pretty fast. And once they arrived at the pond in several boxes Nosedive and Roxie then proceeded to play around with in the Rec Room, much to the amusement of the other members of the team. Especially when Nosedive put on one of her sparkly bras and the matching head-dresses and the two teens proceeded to dance around the room singing at the top of their lungs. Even Mallory joined in with this merriment, while Duke took photos to use for blackmail purposes later.

It also helped that Roxie found a mutual interest with each of the ducks. The first being Tanya.

The first week that she stayed at the Pond the ducks had come back down from practice to find heavy metal music pumping throughout the Pond. They had followed the heavy beats to find Roxie wearing overalls tied at the waist and sports bra, covered in grease and standing on one of the wings of the aerowing with a very heavy power tool. She was singing at the top of her lungs while working the extremely powerful power tool and was completely involved with what she was doing that she didn't notice that she had an audience. It actually took her several moments to notice the dumbfounded crowd of avians, but once she did she started enthusiastically explaining what she was doing and why she was doing it.

"I thought, that since you guys are so busy with all the hockey-stuff, and superhero-ing I could kind of help out down here as a, you know, as a thank you for letting me stay," Roxie said while running some equations on the laptop that was hooked up to one of the engines.

The group of ducks then looked worriedly at Tanya. Since they arrived on Earth three years ago no one else had touched anything on any of the vehicles unless she was punishing them. Duke and Nosedive being the main recipient of that punishment as they often got a little irresponsible with the vehicles. But surprisingly, Tanya was both curious and happy about this turn of events. She began to ask Roxie questions about what she was going to do. The two females then launched into a very nerdy and very in depth conversation about engineering and everyone else was lost within thirty seconds. This was the point that Wildwing realised that he was not going to have any trouble with Roxie staying from Tanya. He decided to leave them to their work and dragged the remaining ducks into the gym for combat training.

Once they found their mutual love of all things science related, Tanya and Roxie started spending a lot of time in Tanya's lab. The former even called Roxie's academic supervisor at Caltech to arrange to have the work that Roxie was doing for the ducks count as credit for her masters. It took a few weeks and a few meetings with a lot of the physics and engineering department, and the Dean of the University before Tanya eventually prevailed. She did have to prove her credentials before the Dean would allow Roxie's work to count towards credit for her Masters. And Tanya didn't even suggest the idea to Roxie before she went about arranging it. So, this news came as welcomed news for Roxie, as it meant that she was getting closer to earning her Masters.

The ducks greatly appreciated how Roxie took on a lot of the maintenance around the pond, which freed Tanya up more to train more. And this meant that when they were out crime fighting there was always someone at the pond to coordinate, or to run diagnostics, while the superhero team was never shorthanded. Grin just appreciated the fact that Roxie cooked, and that she was willing to cook for all the ducks. Another way that she wanted to show her thanks for letting her stay there rent free. But, the thing that really secured her place with the team was the way that she helped Wildwing with Phil.

It was about a month after she moved in, after Wildwing and Duke had just completed a really embarrassing publicity stunt involving stupid costumes and a ridiculous performance. Wildwing was not happy about this and was complaining loudly to Duke about the way that Phil took advantage of them and how they should do something about it.

"Why don't you do something about it then? I mean, it is your franchise, right?" Roxie said while making notes about her recent simulation in the rec room.

"What do you mean?" Wildwing said, as both he and Duke sat down, gingerly, across from Roxie. The publicity stunt had caused many strained and tired muscles.

"Well, you have ideas about what things you would like to do, I've heard you talking about them enough times. And, you must have some connections to get them done, right? Well, why don't you do them?" Roxie said plainly, before putting her ear buds back in and going back to her notes, effectively ending her part in the conversation. She did hate to be disturbed when she was on a roll with her work, and the constant complaints of the older ducks did drive her slightly crazy.

Once the idea was in his head Wildwing couldn't let it go. He kept on pondering what he would do for the team if he was the one in charge, rather than Phil. And it only took a few days before thought turned into action.

When they had arrived on Earth, Phil had given Wildwing an office near his own, the one that had belonged to the previous team's captain. But so far, Wildwing had never used it. In fact, the only ones who used the offices upstairs were the staff members that Phil brought on, and Duke. The older drake had taken an office as he was the unofficial finance officer for the team, and he needed somewhere for all the information to be dropped off from the human side of the franchise since the ducks refused to let any of the human staff members have access to their part of the Pond. The only one who could come down was Phil, even though sometimes they wished they could stop him from coming down.

The office that belonged to Wildwing was quite big, and open. It was a neutral cream colour, with some of the team's posters on the walls and had a wonderful view of the rink and some rather impressive looking oak furniture. Other than that, it was very sparse and impersonal, with large empty bookcases. That was when the weight on what he was going to do slammed down on him. He had no idea on how to manage a sports team, or how to go about publicising them. He hadn't even finished college before the invasion happened, and he was studying forensics, phycology, sociology and criminology, everything needed to enter the Police Department, definitely not management. He thought that he must be crazy for thinking that he could do this. He had no idea how to publicise or manage a team, especially on an alien planet where they've already had problem with the cultural and legal differences between Earth and Puckworld. And he was still couldn't help but feel that he was a kid himself, he should not be captaining the team in the first place. The weight of his insecurity and thoughts made him sit down on the couch with his head in hands, trying desperately to contemplate what he had gotten himself into.

"So, taken' the kid's idea up then?" the smooth voice of Duke suddenly penetrated Wildwing's inner thoughts, startling the younger drake and making him jump out of the seat that he had sank into.

"I wish you would stop doing that," Wildwing said, once his heart rate had slowed down and he had regained some composure. He regarded the older, darker drake who was just leaning casually against the door frame, looking far too pleased with himself.

"Sorry, Wing, force of habit. So, you really gonna start managing the team, instead of just captaining us?" Duke said, walking further into Wildwing's office. That was when Wildwing noticed that the older drake wasn't in his usual maroon jumpsuit, but was dressed in a rather stylish black suit and deep purple tie. It was often commented by the papers and magazines that Duke was the most stylish member of the team, and it was moments like this that made Wildwing realise why. When they all went to benefits and sports dinner Duke was often the one that the papers would comment on in a positive light. Duke was also the most social, as he went out to the opera, theatre and the ballet, as well as many benefits. He also donated money to each of these things, to try and atone for his previous life of crime. Though, sometimes Wildwing thought that was just an excuse as he knew that the older drake really did enjoy all these cultural events.

"What's with the suit?" Wildwing asked, curious about the change in dress. As Duke usually just wore his training clothes around the Pond.

"Ballet," Duke said simply before gesturing for Wildwing to share why he was on the brink of a panic attack in an office he never used before.

Before he knew it Wildwing had begun spilling everything that was on his mind. He was so involved in what he was saying that he didn't notice that someone else had walked into the office. And that the person was also listening to what he was saying and taking mental notes.

"Well, that's an easy fix, hire someone who does. That person would work for both you and Phil, and kind of be a buffer as well. You could easily advertise it at the colleges and set up some interviews this week. You could also start taking courses on this stuff as well, as any college would love to be associated with you guys," Roxie said matter-of-factly while she checked her hair and make-up in her pocket mirror.

"Hey Roxie, what's with the dress?" Wildwing said, once he got over the shock of seeing the girl in his office. And seeing said girl wearing a very conservative black chiffon dress. At least, a conservative dress for her. She was still wearing ridiculously high, spiked heels, and the bust line on her dress was still rather daring, yet the dress was very plain and covered everything. Her hair was also up in a very neat chignon and her make-up was very understated. All in all, it was a very different look than he was not used to seeing. It made her look a lot more sophisticated and rather attractive.

"Ballet," Roxie said simply smiling at the older drake in the room, who was also evaluating what the girl was wearing. But the way he was looking her up and down seemed a lot more lecherous than when Wildwing had done it.

Now this was a development, thought Wildwing as he listened to both Duke and Roxie go through what he should do regarding his problem. He then watched the two leave together and prayed to any god that would listen that it wouldn't cause a problem.

In the month that Roxie had stayed with the ducks Wildwing had definitely noticed how his younger brother felt about the rainbow-haired girl. And it was definitely something more than just friends.

It seemed that Nosedive was a little fonder of Roxie than he would care to admit. He got quite angry with all of Duke's flirting with Roxie and would often call him out on being a dirty old male. It was rather strange as Nosedive had always been quite adamant about the negative points about humanity. But Wildwing could see it, he knew his brother had come to care a lot for Roxie and that he didn't know what to do with his feelings. After all, Nosedive had come to Earth when he was sixteen, and had not dated much before the invasion, so had no idea on how to deal with his feelings towards the opposite sex. And being in closer proximity to Roxie was making Nosedive even more confused than he was before. Wildwing had noticed the longing glances that Nosedive shot her way, the way that he would hug her a little longer than was needed, and the small smile that would grace his beak whenever they were together. And Wildwing didn't know how to deal with any of it.

That evening, when Duke and Roxie came back from the ballet, flirting as usual, Nosedive got very offended that he was not invited as well. He was also a little angry that the two of them were bonding over such a big mutual interest

"But Dive, I did invite you, like four times. You told me you didn't want to go. You said the ballet sounds awful," Roxie said, slightly confused by the contradicting reaction of her friend.

"Well, why did you have to go with him?" Nosedive asked angrily, gesturing at the older duck who had just reappeared with a bottle of wine and two glasses.

"Well, because he was going anyway, and he had better seats. I only get seats that good when it's a show my mother used to dance in!" Roxie exclaimed, as she took the glass of wine from Duke and sat down next to the older drake. She still didn't understand what the problem was, but she promised that the next time she Nosedive would come along, even if he did say no.

"And besides, Kid, this means that she's going to watch our game tomorrow. Thought, I'd take one for the team to get her to finally come," Duke said with a grin, causing Nosedive to narrow his eyes angrily. Duke and Roxie then began to have a very in depth conversation about dancing, and dancers. Which involved lots of technical terms and some innuendoes on Duke's part. The two looked very friendly together and Nosedive couldn't fight the hurt feeling that was growing in his chest. He especially didn't like the idea that Duke had been the one to finally get Roxie to come to one of their games and not him. It was their deal after all.

He couldn't understand these feelings. As Roxie was human and he was avian, but she was female and he was male. Surely that meant something, and they always did have fun together. And he liked her and would happily spend all his free time with her. He wanted to be a better drake when she was around, and she was helping him become one. Yet, they were two different species and she was his best friend. He had realised that a few weeks after they began to hang out with each other. And he was sure that she felt the same way. But, since she had moved in he had developed these new feelings. And seeing her laughing and talking with Duke was nauseating to him. And it hurt that Duke managed to get her to go to one of their games, rather than him.

"Ok, so if I go to the game tomorrow, and wearing some silly Mighty Ducks thingy, that means you all have to come to the club, right?" Roxie said, bringing Nosedive out of his thoughts about the rainbow-haired vixen in front of him.

"Of course, Angel. I mean, it's only fair, right Wildwing?" Duke said with a smile directed towards the team leader who merely stared wide-eyed at the older drake. That was definitely a new nickname that Duke had only used with one other person. And Nosedive and Duke had been in a battle over her as well.

"I've already been," Nosedive chimed in, trying to get Roxie's attention back on him, but only succeeding in having his brother question him further about going to a burlesque club. The resulting questioning made Wildwing decide that they all should go to the club, just so he could find out what his younger brother was doing when he wasn't around.

The next night saw Roxie rink-side, just behind the players' box, at the Mighty Ducks game against Seattle. She was even wearing a Mighty Ducks jersey, as well as Mighty Ducks underpants that she refused to show when Duke requested it. She cheered and applauded and exclaimed along with the rest of the fans. In fact, the ducks couldn't help but be drawn to her exuberance, especially when they scored and she got up on her seat and did a little victory dance. She even managed to get the rest of her section dancing a long with her. And when the Mighty Ducks claimed victory she was the most energetic of the supporters during the victory cheers.

Afterwards, when the ducks were changing in the locker room, Roxie came in to congratulate them on their victory. When they asked her if she enjoyed the game, she still said that it wasn't for her. But, she promised to come and support them whenever she could, to be a friend. And, thanks to her eidetic memory, she had even studied the rules of the game so she could join in on their conversations. All in all, the ducks were very impressed with how much effort she had put in to trying to understand a huge part of their lives.

The night after the game saw the six members of the Mighty Ducks, and their manager, arriving at the Birdcage. Even from the outside they could tell it was a very extravagant place. It was a singular building designed to look older and more exotic than the buildings around it. It was lit up with bright lights and an amazing sign declaring that it was the Birdcage. There were two bouncers on the door, both checking ID's and checking a guest list. Once they were inside the door the seating hostess, who was dressed in a white silk shirt, sequined waistcoat and short shorts with spiked heels, showed the group of seven to the best table in the place. A waitress then brought them over a bottle of champagne telling them it was compliments of Rainbow Brite. The main room of the club was decorated like an old style opera house, with deep colours and exquisite detail. It was a truly amazing place, but some of the party wasn't enjoying the atmosphere at all.

"I can't believe you dragged us here!" Mallory said angrily, as she looked around at all the scantily clad humans who were serving drinks. And she wasn't the only one who was having this thought. Grin was fixedly staring at his drink that had been placed on the table by a waitress wearing sparkly shorts, a bustier and knee high boots. Phil was just ecstatic to have been brought along.

"Well, I just thought that we should do more as a group, and get to know Roxie a little bit more," Wildwing started, stuttering a little. He couldn't help but be a little uncomfortable in the club. The place was a temple to all forms of decadence that Wildwing had never really taken in, and had no desire to partake in.

"Oh please, y-y-you wanted to keep an ey-eye on these two," Tanya said with a sly smile, gesturing towards Duke and Nosedive while she took a sip of her champagne enjoying the way the bubbles felt on her tongue. All the ducks had noticed the way that Nosedive had settled into the club once they arrived and he had had several conversations with several different waitresses and dancers already. As well as the MC of the club, who happened to be a very interesting drag queen. It seemed that Nosedive had visited the club fairly regularly since he had become friends with Roxie and had even hung out backstage with the dancers. Much to Wildwing's annoyance and horror, but to Duke's delight, as he hoped to get the same special treatment.

"Who are you waving at?" Wildwing asked, trying to divert the conversation away from his concerns about his younger brother. He also noticed said younger brother waving at someone in the rafters above them.

"Roxie," Nosedive said with a smile pointing up. The Ducks followed the direction that Nosedive was pointing and saw the rainbow-haired girl up on a beam, wearing very little and holding a lot of pink material. That was when the lights went down and the orchestra struck up the very dramatic music. The ducks were then in absolute awe of the girl, as she suddenly dropped from the beam and begun an aerial dance routine on the pink material. It was memorising, the way she would swoop, and drop and spin, all perfectly timed to music. They had never seen anything like it before.

After the routine ended to rapturous applauds and Lola, the Drag Queen MC had come on stage to introduce the rest of the acts, Roxie came out to sit with the ducks. She was wearing a plain button down shirt that was obviously covering her costume, which was a sheer body stocking with a pink ribbon design strategically covering various parts of her anatomy. The ducks then launched into questions and remarks about what they had just witnessed. They were all shocked by what this girl could do. Just when they thought they had her figured out she would do something else that would dumbfound them.

And it didn't stop with dancing.

When Wildwing finally got up the courage to tackle his office and Phil again, Roxie and Duke were both there to help with a five-year plan. She didn't help with the planning, but with the people needed to make the plan a reality, as she knew everyone that Wildwing could possibly need. She knew students who would be happy to wait events in exchange for free tickets for games. She knew club owners, dancers, and every PR person in the city, thanks to working as the most sought after dancer in the city for two years. And, thanks to Duke's connection with various rich and cultured people, the three were able to set up some charity dinners and benefits to start the new publicity and public relations campaign.

Roxie even managed to help the ducks find a brilliant PA who would work for both Phil and them.

It took a lot to get Phil on board with the new direction that Wildwing wanted to go, as he had been working tirelessly over the last three years for the team. And although, it didn't always look like it was in their best interest he did have what he thought the team needed at heart. As well as his own wallet, but that's beside the point. After weeks of all the ducks beating him down Phil finally conceded to interview candidates and let Wildwing know the results. Wildwing, of course, rejected it and demanded that both of them conduct the interviews. Again, it took a while for Phil to accept and put the ad into the papers.

The day of the interviews saw Wildwing and Phil in one of the conference rooms for the most of the day, while Duke and their coach, Ian Duncan, took the team through practice. Roxie was sitting studying in the player's box, occasionally asking Tanya questions while she played. But, she was very distracted and kept glancing up at the large tinted glass window. It was also a little strange that she was up by the rink, as she often used the ducks practice time to get in some quiet study time. Nosedive also seemed just as distracted as his human friend, and kept glancing up in the direction of the conference rooms as well. So much so that he kept on missing shots which was irritating to everyone on the ice.

After what seemed like a thousand interviews Wildwing and Phil finally came to an agreement about who should be the PA to the Mighty Ducks. It was a UCLA Law student, who was especially interested in corporate law. And, since the Mighty Ducks do some coaching for UCLA, he could start as part of an internship and work up. This appealed to Phil as it meant that they didn't need to pay him that much. But Wildwing liked him because he was very knowledgeable and had some really good ideas. So, Wildwing offered the young man the job once the interview was over, and then went down to finally join the team with their practice.

"So, did you find one?" Duke asked once he saw Wildwing come onto the ice. This made Nosedive look at his brother with uncharacteristic attention.

"Yeah, this student from UCLA, John Meyer. Great kid, a lot of potential," Wildwing said as the candidate he had selected came into view behind the boards. He then saw a flash of colour run up to the young man. John then grabbed hold of Roxie and spun her round.

"Johner!" Nosedive yelled, skating quickly towards the spinning humans.

"I got it!" Johner yelled back at the young drake, who jumped over the lower boards to join in on the hug. Much to the shock of the team captain and who demanded to know what was going on.

It seemed that John Meyer, was also Nosedive's friend Johner, who had become his surfing buddy as well as Roxie's former roommate. And it seemed that both Nosedive and Roxie had prepped Johner for the last week before the interview. When asked why the two didn't just submit Johner themselves both answered that he wanted to earn the place himself, and not just rely on some famous friends.

With Johner working with both Phil and Wildwing the team took a different turn. And it was a turn for the better. With his help the team managed to set up a Youth Team with the idea of recruiting in a few years, they also began guest coaching school teams. Then there were the benefits and parties, which raised money for various charities. And, luckily, since Johner and Roxie knew so many people in the club and bar industry, and Duke knew so many rich, cultured people, these parties were always a huge hit. And, because they were a huge hit, this got the team into other publications.

One such publication was a high end women's magazine that ran a "Twenty Hottest Sportsmen of the Year" article every year. And that year it featured three of the Mighty Ducks. And they ducks were made aware of this article by Roxie walking out onto the ice and sitting on the goal post that Wildwing was defending in the middle of practice and then she started to read.

"It seems we have been slightly biased over the last few years," Roxie began after clearing her throat to get the ducks attention, "and we have not been fair. We have not included some specimens of maleness that should have been included. So we are going to rectify that now."

"At number sixteen is the youngest professional sportsmen in this countdown. We are of course talking about Nosedive Flashblade of the Mighty Ducks. This young male, who seems to enjoy all our planet has to offer, is the most social of the Ducks. He enjoys extreme sports, comic books and always seems to be in a good mood. Though, we're all constantly confused over his relationship with Rainbow Brite, a burlesque performer at the Birdcage in Los Angeles. So once we know, you'll know."

"What the hell is this?" Mallory asked, rather irritated by the interruption, though she was the only once. The other ducks were having quite a good laugh over the article and had even come over to look at the pictures over Roxie's shoulders.

"At number eight, one of the most suave and sophisticated sportsmen we have ever met, Duke L'Orange of the Mighty Ducks. L'Orange, who enjoys the ballet, opera, theatre and museums, is always stylishly dressed, and although he is a little bit on the mature side, he is still quite delicious. After all, with age comes refinement, and L'Orange is definitely one of the most refined sportsmen today," Roxie continued with a smirk.

"I beat you, Kid!" Duke said with a smirk and a friendly elbow jab at Nosedive. Who took it well and began to laugh a long with Tanya about the 'refined' comment.

"And, at number one. Ladies, we have to say this is really the finest example of the male specimen of any species. For, despite his age, he is managing, coaching and captaining one of the most successful hockey teams of recent times. We are of course talking about Wildwing Flashblade of the Mighty Ducks," Roxie said with a flourish causing all the assembled ducks to heckle the extremely embarrassed captain.

"Please stop!" Wildwing said seriously. He couldn't believe what the magazine had said about them, and he really didn't want to know what else was written, as he could see the page wide spread that was all about him. He had always been very modest, and would honestly become nervous whenever someone made these kind of comments about him. He also couldn't believe that an alien species had written so much about them describing and judging them as 'hot', but he was the only one. Both Duke and Nosedive were extremely happy with these turn of events. And demanded that they go out and celebrate their new status as hot celebrities. Of course, Roxie agree saying that the Birdcage would be happy to help them celebrate. She then ran off to make calls to see what other lists they could get on, and it was lucky that she did.

Over the past few months Roxie had formed a good relationship with each of the ducks, as she was a very likable person. She had even gone out of her way to try and help the ducks out as much as she could. And, although, she could be eccentric, loud, impulsive and very flirty, she fitted in quite well with almost all the team. So, when her apartment was finally repaired so she could move back in, Wildwing decided to ask her to stay.

It had been quite a lengthy discussion with the team about the idea of Roxie reaming at the Pond and he felt everyone should be able to voice the opinion. Almost everyone agreed that since she had been living at the Pond a lot of thigs had changed for the better, and it was great to have someone stay at the Pond while they patrolled for the Saurians. The only one who was still uncomfortable with the girl was Mallory. And she was not shy about expressing these feelings during this discussion. In fact, she had not been shy about her animosity towards the human girl for the last few months and had been looking forward to her moving out since she arrived. It was nothing personal about the girl herself, it was just that Roxie was too much like Nosedive, and Nosedive always irritated the military minded female. What was worse was that the two teens egged each other on, seeing who could one up the other. Whether it was a disgusting food eating contest, or a revolting movie watching marathon. Then there were the late nights out, the hangovers in the morning, the flirting with Duke and other males. It was too much to take sometimes.

Wildwing had actually had to take Mallory aside and explained why he had offered for the girl to stay here.

"Nosedive is alone, remember when we came here he was only sixteen. He had not experienced life and had not had a chance to make real friends. We've all had the chance to live, would you honestly prevent the kid from the same thing?" Wildwing said sadly before leaving Mallory to contemplate his words. It had also caused Mallory to begin to think about her life and about her leader. She remembered when Wildwing was selected for the strike force. She didn't think he would last long, but he did and he even became a better leader than Canard. This was the type of male that Mallory should have settled down with years ago, before the invasion.

In the end, Mallory had agreed to let her stay. But only on the condition that Roxie help the rest of the team, and that she abide by the same rules they try to force Nosedive to live by. After two weeks Mallory realised there was very little chance of Roxie following any of the rules, as she was exactly the same as Nosedive and it took too much effort to get him to follow any rules. There was no chance with two of them.

But at last, the two strong females finally found some common ground. With shopping.

Every year the ducks were invited to a Sportsmen Charity Dinner. It was always a black tie event hosted in one of the top hotels in L.A. and Mallory always enjoyed going to it, as it gave her a chance to indulge her feminine side. Which she didn't get to indulge very often. She always got her hair and make-up done by a professional and would spend days searching out the perfect dress. It had to be sophisticated and elegant with a hint of sex appeal, but this year she wanted to up the sex appeal to flaunt what she had to a certain drake. Unfortunately, she could not find anything that came remotely close to what she was looking for despite her many trips into many different shopping districts.

Mallory was starting to lose hope of ever finding a dress that would fit everything she wanted when she spotted a beautiful purple dress hanging in the Rec Room. it was obviously Tanya's dress for the dinner, as it was her size and colour, but Mallory couldn't get over how it was so perfect for the other female. it was purple, and floaty, and would flatter her bigger frame. Mallory had no idea how Tanya had managed to find that dress when Roxie and Tanya walked in to the Rec Room.

"Hey, it came," Roxie said, coming over and taking the dress down, handing it to Tanya who thanked the girl profusely before dashing off back to her room to try it on.

"You got her that dress?" Mallory asked the rainbow-haired girl as she sat down on the couch.

"Kind of, she couldn't find anything that she liked, so I took her to my seamstress, the one who makes all the costumes for the club. She's been trying to break into the bigger fashion world, she just enjoys the flamboyancy of designing for the club. She's doing my dress for the dinner as well," Roxie said taking out her notes to look over some of simulations. Mallory had almost forgotten that Roxie had been invited along.

"Do you think she would do a dress for me?" Mallory asked cautiously, as she knew the two of them hadn't gotten along very well and she was now asking the younger girl for a favour. Luckily, Roxie was not the type to hold a grudge and agreed to take her later that afternoon, as she was getting fitted there later that day.

The trip to Roxie's designer had an amazing effect on the relationship between Roxie and Mallory. Once they arrived at the shop seamstress asked Mallory a lot of questions about what she wanted and what she liked. She was then able to sketch an idea that Mallory loved and she started fitting her for the dress that day. It would be a long, form fitting, blue sequined dress, with a long slit up one side. She was also able to see the finished product for Roxie, which was perfect for the girl and for the event. It was a long, black, silky, halter necked jumpsuit with lace accents around the bust line, straps and around the plunging back. It was risqué but elegant. Once they had finished at the store the two females then went to buys some accessories to go with their new outfits. As well as shoes, as Roxie was determined not to look too short.

When they duo arrived back at the pond hands full of shopping bags, chatting amicable, laughing and joking, it caused everyone in the Rec Room to freeze. The drakes didn't know what to do, they had never seen those two get on so well nor spend time together willingly. All they could do was watch as they made their way towards the accommodation wing, talking about a salsa bar they were going to visit that evening.

"What's going on?" asked Nosedive, in a total state of shock.

"I don't know, kid, but I think the world is about to end," Duke asked equally shocked. Wildwing on the other hand could not say anything, he just hoped that this would mean that Roxie and Mallory would start to get along.


	5. Chapter Five

hello,

I definitely have this plot bunny in my head now and I must write it down before continuing with anything else.

Disclaimer: still don't own

* * *

Chapter Five

The Sportsmen Charity Dinner was always a huge success and always such a fun event to attend. The dinner was attended by various members of the sports community, including some of the luckier college players. The dinner was then opened to members of the public and the place was charged at over one hundreds a head, plus there were always children from various charities in attendance. There would usually be an awards ceremony of sorts to acknowledge some of the sportsmen in attendance, plus there was going to be a silent auction this to help further raise money with many of the items being donated by the sports team or other organisations. It was always well attended by many of the sports teams on the west coast, and the organisers hoped to raise more money than they did last year.

That year was perhaps one of the best they had attended as the Ducks knew more of the humans in attendance and felt more comfortable socialising with them. As well as that, due to Wildwing's more active role in the management side of the franchise, and with Johner's help, the ducks felt less like a side show act and more like an actual professional team. There was also the added bonus of Mallory and Roxie finally getting along, which was cause to celebrate. Both females actually spent all afternoon getting beautified together, and used it as a female bonding experience. They even managed to find other common interests such as movies and books.

As was common the universe over, the males were dressed and ready to go on time while the females were still getting ready. So all the drakes were assembled in the Rec Room wearing their best tuxedoes and drinking champagne that Duke had brought out to indulge in before they set off. Duke always brought out drinks while they waited to go to these fancy dinners as a way to relax the other drakes on the team. After all they were not as used to formal wear as Duke was. And besides, since they had a little bit of a wait for the females to finish getting ready and it was also a way to encourage some male bonding. The current topic of conversation was the movie trilogy they had all just seen.

The first girl out was Tanya as usual, as she wasn't the most feminine of ducks and would rarely spend much time on her appearance. Though, that evening she did look lovely, with her mane styled more delicately and wearing a very feminine, flowy dress of lilac chiffon. It was layered, floaty and softened her larger frame instantly. She wore minimal jewellery, choosing only to wear a simple necklace and her wedding band on her left wrist. She also, thankfully, had finally taken off her omnitool. It makeup was light and minimal, with only the lightest of eye shadow and mascara. Altogether, she looked lovely and all the drakes assembled told her so, though they could all tell she was a little uncomfortable in what she was wearing. So, Duke did the only thing he could think of and handed her a rather large glass of champagne. Which Tanya gladly accepted before sitting down and joining the drakes in conversation.

A few minutes later Mallory finally arrived and all the ducks in the Rec Room had to agree that she looked stunning. Her mane was styled expertly, her makeup was dramatic and her fitted gown hugged all her curves splendidly. Plus, the slit that went up to her just above her knee made her legs looks fabulous. Around her bare shoulders was a shawl made of a light and gauzy cream material that also shimmered with each movement. She finished off the look with a pair of strappy heels the same shade of blue as her dress and a floating diamond necklace.

"Ohh Mal-Mal, don't you clean up nice," Duke said with a grin and a wink, looking the duck up and down. He then handed her a glass of champagne which Mallory accepted with a smile. The response wasn't from the drake that she was hoping to impress, but it was a compliment nonetheless. It was very rare to get a compliment about her looks from her team mates, as they were used to seeing her ready for a game or a fight, not usually ready for a party. That was one of the reasons she loved these events so much. She got to dress up and indulge her vanity for a little while. And she was sure enjoying to appreciative glances of the some of the drakes' present. That was when Roxie made her entrance.

Now, Roxie always made an entrance, even when she was dressed down. She was just that kind of person. But when she was all dressed up like she was that evening, she made everything stop. And she did it so effortlessly.

The black silk and lace jumpsuit fitted Roxie like a glove. The silken pants of the suit flowed gracefully over her toned legs and kicked a little at the bottom, flashing the pair of tied stiletto heels. The lacey top half was halter-necked giving the girl ample cleavage. While the neck had been tied high and the ends hung loose down her plunging back, showing off an expanse of lightly tanned skin. Roxie had also chosen to have very dramatic makeup, with dark smoky eyes and deep, vibrant red lips. Her rainbow hair was twisted up into a marvellous mass of multi-coloured curls, with a few tendrils of colour hanging down. She was wearing long earrings that sparkled with every movement of her head, with a few silver coloured bangles on her right wrist since Nosedive explained the significance of a bracelets on the left wrist. She was dramatic and glamourous as ever, and somehow oozed confidence.

She looked breath taking, and Nosedive definitely felt his heart skip a beat. He was almost frozen to the spot and had no idea what to do next. Unfortunately for the young drake, Duke was the one who responded to the entrance first and brought over the girl a glass of champagne.

"Roxie, Angel, you look breath taking," Duke said smoothly as he gave the girl the glass of champagne while he ran a hand over her bare back, enjoying the feeling of the skin under his feathered fingers. And, in all honesty, so did Roxie.

"Thanks," Roxie said with a small smile as she took the drink from Duke, and let the older drake escort her over to the couches. Once there the two started a conversation instantly on the current tour of the Russian Ballet that would be coming to the west coast soon. Since there most recent trip to the ballet both Duke and Roxie had been talking a lot more. Something that couldn't help but cause Nosedive to silently seethe. It didn't help that Duke had been joining the younger drake on his trips to visit Roxie at the Birdcage. Luckily, the other humans that were joining the ducks chose that moment to show up at the Pond and prevent anything from escalating further.

Once the large group had taken several pictures and finished the bottle of champagne that Duke had opened, the group of Avians and Earthlings got into the rented limo that would take them to the Plaza. Where there was, thankfully, more champagne and more photo opportunities. And, luckily, Wildwing and Duke were sitting together having a very in depth conversation while Roxie sat next to Nosedive and sang along to the stereo. Which they controlled.

When they arrived at the Plaza there was a mass of photographers, as they knew there would be, so each of the females checked their makeup. When the doors were opened Grin was the first out followed by Phil. The latter waved at the camera and encouraged the former to do the same. After that Duke and Wildwing exited the limo and helped both Tanya and Mallory out. They then escorted the two ducks on their arms past all the photographers, stopping occasionally to have photos taken or to sign a few autographs. The last ones out of the limo were Johner, Roxie and Nosedive. Johner, of course, quickly walked past the crowd of press as he had work to do coordinating the Ducks. That left Roxie and Nosedive to pose for the cameras.

Since Nosedive had begun to hang out with Roxie more, and go out more, he had been photographed more than any of the other ducks. And most of those photos were with Roxie, hence the groundwork for the rumour that they were dating. In fact, most of the reporters were asking that specific question towards the posing couple. Both teens always denied the rumour, as it just wasn't true. This time however, Nosedive just pulled Roxie closer to his body and smiled for the camera, refusing to answer the question. He knew it was silly, but he honestly didn't know how to answer that question now.

Once they had posed for enough photos and Nosedive had signed a few autographs the two teens headed into the hotel foyer, where they met with other sportsmen that were attending. It was a fairly jovial atmosphere but Roxie was a little unnerved. She had, of course, noticed that Nosedive refused to answer the questions thrown his way about their supposed relationship. Usually he would answer those types of questions swiftly with a definite denial, but this time he had merely posed and smiled for the cameras.

"Hey, Dive, how come you didn't answer the questions?" Roxie asked as the drake in question as he handed her a drink from a passing waiter.

"Well, it's really not their business, right. Besides, I've told them that we're not dating so many times now, and they never listen anyway," Nosedive said with a nervous smile, which Roxie raised her perfectly arched eyebrow at.

That's a word that kept on running through Nosedive's mind, perfect. He had been thinking that way for a while, but was having trouble expressing these thoughts as he had no idea how Roxie was feeling. Sometimes he thought that she might feel the same way, but sometimes he thought that she definitely didn't return his feelings. He hoped she did, but if she didn't then he risked losing his best friend. For that's what she had become over the last six months, his best friend.

Meanwhile, Roxie could see the inner struggle that was playing out on Nosedive's face. He definitely needed to work on his poker face, or maybe she just understood him better than she thought she did. And she also had no idea what to do. She had thought that this was the one friendship she could have that wouldn't get complicated as Nosedive had been very vocal about how he felt about humans, and that she was an exception to his negative feelings about humanity. She honestly had no idea what she was going to do about Nosedive's changing feelings, as she would rather lose everything she owned and had worked for than lose her best friend. It wasn't often that someone could see past all her eccentricities, insecurities and quirks, such as her freaky intelligence and OCD, to actually want to stay friends with her. Johner had been an exception years ago, and they only bonded due to their mutual love of surfing and dance, and trauma over having an overly critical mother. But they could still drive each other crazy. If their apartment hadn't burned down forcing them to have to live apart she knew that they would not be friends anymore, as they had been arguing nonstop for months before hand. But Nosedive was different, he saw every bad quality and still wanted to spend time with her. And though she had no romantic feelings towards him she knew that she loved him, and couldn't imagine losing him.

"Hey, there you are, what took you? And should you two really be drinking?" Phil berated, breaking through the inner dialogues going on in the heads of the two teens. They both looked over to see their group standing at the doorway to the ballroom, obviously waiting on them to catch up. The two made their way quickly and discreetly over to the adults, two of whom took their drinks away and ushered them ahead of them and into the ballroom.

When the group had finally entered the ballroom they were ushered to their table by Johner, who had already scouted out everything they needed to know about that evening. He was currently explaining to Wildwing, Phil and Coach Duncan the rundown of the evening and the set-up while the other members of the party took their seats. As soon as they were seated a waiter brought over the bottle of wine that Duke had ordered as soon as he entered the room.

Their table was located near the centre of the room, close enough to the stage and the dance floor so that they could see everything that was going on. They were also near a few other teams that they were on friendly terms with, so that they could chat with friends that they don't often see. Most teams didn't tend to sit all together, but they always made an exception with the only Avians on the planet. There were also a few other players seated at their table, along with some children who were there from various charities. The children at the table were ecstatic to have been seated next to their favourite sports playing aliens and instantly began asking for autographs. While the sportsmen were excited to have been seated next to such a famous burlesque dancer and instantly asked for photos and for a dance later.

"Now I hope you're gonna save a dance for me, Angel," Duke crooned over a fresh glass of wine. He had managed to be seated next to Roxie, while Nosedive was a few seats down next to some teenagers who were there from a cancer charity. They were currently discussing the upcoming hockey session with the young drake with looks of absolute joy on their faces.

"I don't know 'bout that, Old Duck, my dance cards pretty full," Roxie said flirtatiously over a glass of wine that Duke had given her as soon as she sat down at the table.

"Aww, I think you can squeeze in someone who can actually dance, cause I doubt any of these boys could actually, you know, keep up with you like I could," Duke said with a salacious smile, causing Roxie to laugh at his innuendo.

Now this was another thing that was confusing Roxie. Due to her freakish intelligence she had never really related to anyone her own age. Most people her age were only in their freshman year of college while she was two years into her Masters. So, it was only natural that she found men her own age far too immature and didn't really desire to date them. As a result, she usually went for older men who she could relate to more. Men who had actually finished college and were working towards something. Not that she really desired to date anyone. She had actually always found relationships quite difficult, as people were either intimidated by her advanced intelligence or irritated by her various personality quirks. This meant that she didn't have many friends, and rarely sought out a long term relationship, preferring just to have fun and leave the person before they left her. And that was what was confusing her.

Normally she would have instantly gone for someone like Duke. An older man, with some similar interests, who she could have a conversation with. Unfortunately, Duke was an alien and therefore she shouldn't feel attracted to him. There was also the added problem of Duke being team mates with someone who was her best friend and who she sensed had romantic feelings towards her. Plus, she was technically living with both of them. Altogether, it spelled a recipe for absolute disaster and the more intelligent area of her brain was telling her to sort the problem out and to stay well away. But then there was the baser part of her brain. The part that controlled her desires and her impulsive nature. The part that she listened to too often, and which often got her into problems. This part was very curious about what could happen if she let it. So, far she had managed to silence to this part but Duke was obviously persistent and had no problem expressing what he wanted. Another quality she preferred.

"I might be able to squeeze you in, if you're sure that you can make it worth it," Roxie said flirtatiously before her brain told her to be quiet. Thankfully, before either Duke or Roxie could say anything more another sportsman, this time a basketball player, came over and asked Roxie for a photo. After that the dinner and charity event finally started.

The dinner was obviously fantastic, being a five-star restaurant and seats at each of the tables were about one hundred dollars a head. The ducks were able to enjoy a vegetarian option which was beautifully prepared and presented, and the kitchen were sensible enough to take all poultry off the menu for the evening. The hotel the year before was not that sensible and the PR backlash from trying to feed a Duck roast chicken was incredible.

Once the meal was finally finished and drinks were once again being served the band finally set up. This was the part of the evening that Roxie was most looking forward to as she loved to dance. She had actually been studying dance she since was three years old as her mother was once a principle dancer turned dance instructor. When they finally tested her intelligence level due to her penchant for destruction and misbehaviour at age eight and found that she was so advanced she was suddenly thrust into a very uncertain world where she was on an accelerated path. Dance had then become a constant and focal point, somewhere she could also go back to when things became too much. Because of this desire for a constant she had studied many different forms of dance, from ballet to jazz, ballroom to Latin, and she was proficient in almost all. And, it was very rare that she got the opportunity to enjoy all these types of dance. She did get to flex her creative muscle when she danced at the Birdcage and she was able to mix different styles and disciplines, but that was always well choreographed. And it felt a little too much like work now. What she was really looking forward to was an opportunity to just go where the music took her. Though, not many people could actually dance now, she had found that most sportsmen were made to take dance lessons to help improve their ability to play their sports. So, she would be able to actually dance tonight.

"Excuse Miss Brite, but would you like to dance?" came the uncertain voice of one of the young teenage boys, who had been sitting next to Nosedive, startling everyone at the table. The band was only just about to start playing and no one else had made it onto the floor yet. Roxie had actually promised to dance the first dance with Johner, who had once again become her dance partner now that they were on friendly terms again. But, seeing as this dinner was meant to help kids like him there was no way she could say no.

"Of course I would love to," Roxie said with a big smile causing both Johner and Nosedive to start giggling. The boy, whose name was Daniel, led Roxie out to the centre of the floor before gripping her hand and waist in a classic ballroom hold. Much to the whoops and cheers of everyone who was seated.

When the band finally struck up the first cords of a waltz the young man led Roxie effortlessly through a classic waltz. He obviously couldn't put in any lifts, but he was sure of his footing and was able to take the lead during the dance. This caused everyone to cheer loudly at each impressive twist and spin, and it encouraged others to finally head out on to the dancefloor. Roxie was a little taken aback by this young man's dancing ability, but after a few minutes he confided in her that he played hockey and took dancing lessons, before he got sick. He had actually won a few dance contests in his youth as well, and had seen her dance at the junior amateur competition a few years back.

Once the dance was over Daniel escorted Roxie back to her seat and thanked her profusely for the dance before he ran back to his seat blushing. Though Roxie didn't get much time to catch her breath before Johner clasped her hand and spun her back onto the dancefloor, before gripping her tightly in a ballroom hold. The band then struck up a more up tempo dance and the two humans began to move around the floor in perfect harmony causing everyone to move out of the way and just watch in awe. The band loved the two dancers and the other sportsmen cheered and applauded with every lift and dip of the two. And when the final note was struck and they ended in a pose the whole room erupted in raucous applause as Johner led Roxie in a bow before the two returned to their seats.

"I didn't know you could dance as well, John," Grin said seriously. Since the human had begun working with them they hadn't really had much time to talk and socialise, as the young man was always buys. So there was a lot they still didn't know about the young man but they were slowly getting onto friendlier terms, especially since all publicity now came through Johner and he stopped some of Phil's more ridiculous ideas and deals.

"Well, that's how Roxie and I met, at dance class. Both mine and Roxie's mothers were dancers and they insisted that we continue dancing. After we were partnered up we became friends, we even competed together a few times," Johner explained before he asked Mallory if she would like to dance. The duck agreed a little timidly, as she knew she couldn't dance at his calibre. But, seeing as how Nosedive had just grabbed Roxie by the hand and dragged her onto the dancefloor Mallory thought she might as well try.

"Ok Dive, like we practiced, Ok? Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow," Roxie said as Nosedive very cautiously grasped her hand and waist. Since Roxie had moved into the Pond, she and Nosedive had been having an exchange of sorts. Nosedive had been teaching Roxie the basics of hockey while Roxie had been teaching Nosedive how to dance. He had always loved to dance before, and enjoyed going clubbing with Roxie, but the type of dance that she was teaching him was something entirely new and Nosedive wasn't that good at it. Luckily, Roxie was a very patient teacher. It had actually caused some amusement for the rest of the ducks when they walked in to find Roxie trying to take Nosedive through a basic routine while giving him instructions on how to improve.

When the band began again the two teens began to move to music, nothing too complicated, just trying to get into sync with each other and the beat. They actually did well, other than a few stepped-on toes and miss-steps by Nosedive. The other ducks couldn't help but chuckle at their youngest member, as he was very apologetic and a little cautious dancing with Roxie. It took a few dances before Nosedive actually got up enough confidence to take the lead and move his friend around the floor. But, after a while, both the teens looked like they were having a good time.

That was until other men started to cut in and Nosedive was forced to sit down as his partner started to dance with other guys. He didn't like to admit it to himself but he was a little disappointed that Roxie wouldn't decline their offers, even though he knew he didn't really have a right to keep her to himself. She would come back to their table every once in a while, to grab a drink and cool down before grabbing Nosedive again to continue with their dancing. But by this time Nosedive was being asked to dance by other women, or girls, in the room. And since he was a very sociable drake he would of course instantly lead them out onto the dancefloor. So, if he was unavailable, Roxie would grab Johner or someone else. She even managed to get Grin and Wildwing up on the dancefloor, though the latter always seemed to be getting dragged up by Mallory.

Now that was interesting, Roxie thought a few times as she watched Mallory move closer to her captain. It was obvious that Mallory was attracted to Wildwing, and even Roxie could see why. For someone like Mallory someone like Wildwing; steadfast, strong and structured, would be an obvious choice. But, it was also obvious that Wildwing didn't reciprocate. And, Roxie was sure that Nosedive had mentioned something about a Wildwing having a girlfriend a while back. Surely that meant that he would be off-limits, unless Mallory didn't know.

Roxie decided she should ask Nosedive about that later, but for now she was going to save Wildwing for being uncomfortable.

"Hey Boss-Duck, mind if I get the next dance?" Roxie asked after tapping the large drake on the shoulder.

"Of course, excuse me please Mallory," Wildwing said, dropping his hold on the other duck much to Mallory's annoyance. And when they were far enough away from the hot tempered duck Roxie whispered 'you're welcome' to the relieved duck.

"You know, you're a lot better at this than your brother," Roxie said after a few minutes of gracefully dancing with the white drake. He graciously accepted the praise and continued to lead the young woman around the dancefloor. If there was one thing that Roxie knew about Wildwing was that he was very modest and humble, unlike his brother. By this time everyone was dancing and having a good time, and not paying much attention to what was happening on the dancefloor.

"Did you dance a lot with, Belle, Elle?" Roxie asked the suddenly stunned duck.

"Ella," Wildwing answered quickly, "and yes. She liked to dance. Nosedive told you about her?"

"A little bit, but not that much," Roxie answered the now solemn drake. That was obviously a mistake, she really didn't know when to keep her mouth shut. It looked like they were going to spend the next few minutes in an uncomfortable silence, until Wildwing decided to oblige the curious girl and began to tell her a little bit about his girlfriend on Puckworld.

It was rather nice dancing with Wildwing, though due to her short stature it was a little awkward. Though not as much as when she danced with Grin who was a good twelve inches taller than Roxie. The only duck that Roxie had yet to dance with was Duke. It was a little disappointing as she was starting to think that the older drake was all talk and no action. And since it was getting to the end of the evening she doubted that he would cut in.

As she was finishing her foxtrot with Wildwing, with a little instruction from Roxie, there was a light tap on the drake's shoulder. Wildwing turned around to find Duke standing just behind him with a sly grin on his beak, looking Roxie up and down. The older drake had removed his jacket and tie, and looked far too comfortable standing on the dancefloor.

"Mind if I cut in, Wing? As I do believe I owe this lady a dance," Duke asked holding out his hand for Roxie to take. Wildwing couldn't do much but watch as the young woman took the older drakes hand and allowed him to lead her further onto the dancefloor. He saw the look the two of them shared, but he desperately hoped he was wrong.

"Hey, Bro, where's Roxie?" came his younger brother's voice breaking Wildwing out of his inner thoughts. He looked up and saw Nosedive standing where Roxie and Duke had once been. Wildwing could only stutter slightly, trying to think of what to say to his brother, but nothing came to mind.

"Come on, I wanna see if she wants to…" Nosedive said, but stopped suddenly as he caught sight of Duke and Roxie standing motionlessly on the dancefloor as if waiting for a sign. He looked back at Wildwing, who was still floundering slightly and was about to start walking towards the motionless pair when the band paused for dramatic effect.

Meanwhile, Roxie stood facing Duke in the dead centre of the dancefloor. Just looking the older drake up and down, trying to get a read on his facial expression. He was smirking at her, like he usually did but she didn't know why. Until the band stopped and changed music. She recognised the beat as soon as the first notes were struck, and that's when she realised why the older drake was smirking.

He requested the song.

The band that night had mostly been playing music that was suited to the waltz, the foxtrot, as well as some swing and jazz. But the song that hand begun to play was a tango, and Duke was obviously already in the mood to tango as he had effected the perfect demeanour for the dance.

"Alright," thought Roxie, "if that's how you want to play this, I'm game."

The two bodies at the dead centre of the dancefloor moved slowly into a close hold, both looking serious. The bodies of the duck and girl began to move in perfect harmony across the floor causing the other dancers to move out of the way and watch what was happening. But at the first dramatic lift and dip the entire room watched the interspecies pair who had now forgotten anyone else was in the room. They were lost in the feeling and movement of the dance that was all about passion. The dance was dramatic and slightly sensual, as the drake lead the girl around the room, somehow communicating to her exactly what he wanted her to do. There were instantly whispers going around the room, as no one knew that the centre of the Mighty Ducks knew how to dance or dance that well. And no one had any idea that he would be able to dance like that with rainbow-haired girl.

When the music hit its final crescendo Duke had grabbed Roxie close to his body, dipping the girl in what looked like a passionate embrace while maintaining intense eye contact. They lower bodies were joined as Duke had Roxie's leg hiked up to his body which was holding her close to him, while one of his hands was holding her bare back and the other was still gripping her hand. Both were inhaling deeply due to the vigour of the dance they had just shared but they still did not move from their pose. The two were still staring deeply at each other and restraining themselves from moving as neither entirely trusted their own bodies. After months of flirting and casual touching, both with no real meaning behind it, the contact and passion of the dance had triggered something.

It took the entire room erupting in applause to penetrate the bubble that was created by the two dancers. And if they felt awkward by the sudden awakening of sensual thoughts they didn't show it. The two merely raised slowly from their position, separated with great dignity and bowed to each other before they joined together again in a classic ballroom hold. The band took their cue from the dancers and began to play a lively tune that was perfect for a foxtrot. The floor once again filled with dancers, a little slower than before as many wanted to watch Duke and Roxie again. But, the end of the evening was fast approaching and everyone wanted to at least get in one last dance before the evening came to a close.

"I promised the last dance to Nosedive," Roxie said quietly to Duke as song they were dancing to came to an end. They had not spoken for the entirety of both their dances.

"Ok, Kid," Duke said simple before bowing to his partner and exiting the dancefloor. He watched as Roxie found Nosedive by the bar and as she dragged the younger drake onto to floor he felt a slight stab of something that he didn't like.

"What the hell was that," came Wildwing's voice from behind the grey drake.

"What was what?" Duke said eyeing up his leader. The team captain looked slightly angry and Duke could understand why, but he wasn't gonna verbalise it.

"You know exactly what," Wildwing said.

"It was only a dance, Wing. It didn't mean anything. Can't help it if we're both that good," Duke said with a smirk grabbing a whiskey neat from a passing waiter. He drank it down in one gulp, allowing the amber liquid to burn away a little of what he was feeling.

"It better had been," Wildwing said before walking away and going back to the table.

Duke stood at the edge of the dancefloor watching Roxie and Nosedive chat away during their clumsy waltz. He could see the kid trying to lead Roxie through the dance, but she kept on having to take back the lead to save them from hitting another couple. Yet they both looked like they were having a lot of fun together. As they should be, after all, they were similar ages with similar temperaments. They would make a good couple, he thought with that same stab. After all his years of avoiding feeling anything for anyone he knew that he was beginning to feel something for the rainbow haired girl.

It was unsettling, thought Duke. After all, he was a duck and she was human. Plus, there was the age difference. And the fact that he really didn't do relationships, it was just easier that way. Well, it was when he was a master thief and couldn't trust anyone. But now was different, he was a good guy and had people he could trust. Yet, he knew it was wrong.

"It's just a little crush," Duke told himself as he went to get his jacket, "she's hot and challenging. It'll go away soon enough."

When the band finally closed for the night and party was over most of the Mighty Ducks got into their limo and headed back to the Pond. All except Roxie, Nosedive and Johner, who had decided to join some of the other, younger members of the party at some of the local clubs. They promised to be responsible and then headed off in the direction of one of the most exclusive clubs that was near the hotel.


	6. Chapter Six

Hey guys,

can't believe I have two actual reviews for this story, I just thought no one was reading it.

I must warn you that this chapter has a higher rating, though I'm not changing the general rating, unless I decide to repeat the situation. The idea is that these two are very drunk and won't remember much of what happened, but you will know what happened. I'm used to writing more explicit material than this but I've decided to try and find a balance. Hopefully I have.

Enjoy

TFG

* * *

Chapter Six

The weeks after the Sports dinner were a little awkward, especially between Roxie and Nosedive. And no one knew why exactly. They had come in together after dawn and had just gone straight to their rooms without saying anything to any of the ducks who were in the Rec Room. And Neither were willing to discuss what happened for the weeks that followed, but after a little while they both fell back into their usual camaraderie and activities.

There was also something different between Roxie and Duke, but it was acted out in a different way. There was always a lingering thought or touch between the two and no one dared comment on it for the fear that it would be confirmed. Then there was Wildwing's reaction to Mallory, which was just comical, as the team captain point blank refused to deal with it and avoided the situation entirely.

After a few months everything had returned to normal. Well, as normal as life could get for a group of alien, professional hockey playing ducks. Plus, the humans that had become part of their lives. There were games to play and practice for, promotional stuff that needed to be talked into, and a supervillain to try and stop. But the Saurians only reared their ugly heads every once in a while, as it took them a while to recover from each defeat, especially since their ship was still underwater. Otherwise things were pretty normal.

Everyone was actually getting a long as best as several big personalities could get a long, though there were still some flair ups of tempers, especially from the more hot-headed of the group. The main culprits being Mallory and Nosedive, who simply could not get a long when it was quiet. Though, Roxie also caught quite a bit of the red-head's ire. But, since the Sportsmen Dinner Roxie and Mallory had been on mostly good terms as Roxie had gone into the final part of her Master's programme and was pretty much working around the clock to complete it. This increased the level of respect that Mallory had for the rainbow-haired girl. As she knew that she could be reckless and impulsive like Nosedive, but she could also follow rules and guidelines. Although, her opinion did drop again after she finished her masters.

About six months after the Sportsmen's Dinner, and about nine months after Roxie had moved into the Pond, the brilliant young woman finally got confirmation that she had achieved all the necessary requirements for her masters. She also was informed that she had been accepted onto a doctoral program at Caltech and that the university would still allow her work at the Pond to count towards her credit for the Postgraduate work. Not only that, but due to the work that she had done with the Ducks and some of the experiments that she had run plus the equipment that she had created for NASA, they had actually offered her a partial scholarship. This was all explained to her at a meeting with the Dean at one in the afternoon where Roxie was completely blown away. The Dean had then given her the rest of the day off as she wasn't needed in the lab that day. As a result, she began to celebrate almost as soon as she left the university. She arrived back at the Pond just after five in the evening to find all the Ducks in the Rec Room enjoying a quiet dinner. She had shown up in a flurry of dance, fairly inebriated and eager for everyone to join her.

"Do you know what this means? Only a few more years and I'll never have to make a living taking my clothes off, teasing sweaty, balding middle aged men again! Hell, with what you guys pay me here I don't even need to work that many shifts at the Birdcage! I can finally be taken seriously as an actual scientist!" Roxie exclaimed after she had jumped barefooted onto the back of the couch, bottle of wine in hand, taking a huge swig. The fact that she could balance, while drunk on such a small surface had several of the ducks in a fit of giggles.

"Aw, but sweetheart, you're such a talented dancer, you're the best one there. It just won't be the same without seeing you dance there," Duke crooned as he slyly took the bottle from her hand and without her noticing took a swig while plopping himself onto the couch next to the inebriated girl. He kept the bottle of wine in one hand and rested his arms on the back of the couch, so the bottle was just out of sight of Roxie. Everyone else gave him a slightly exasperated look. They had actually gotten used to their flirting and knew that it didn't mean anything but it did get slightly annoying after a while. Although, Nosedive still got a little more irritated that Duke could flirt with Roxie and that she would flirt back while he didn't know how to. Duke had even joined Nosedive a few times when he waited at the club for Roxie to finish and enjoyed the show from backstage. He was able to talk so confidently about dancing, while Nosedive was still unsure of the basics. As well as that, Duke had taken Roxie out dancing a few times to a salsa club he found downtown. Not that they ever went alone. Nosedive and Johner would always join them, and so far, nothing had happened between Roxie and Duke.

"You know Dukester," Roxie said sensually as she stepped delicately off the back of the couch to stand next to Duke on his seat on the couch, "I'm in such a good mood," she said as she slowly straddled Duke's legs and begun to sit on his lap while her upper body leaned forward, "that I may just give you a private show." She finished with a very sexy and sly smile.

This turn of event caused Duke to smirk while Nosedive began to simmer across from them, while everyone else were too shocked to move. They had no idea what to do or what to say next. Grin looked like he was going to blush himself to death while Wildwing was unsure of where to look and merely started wide-eyed at the scene before him. Tanya and Mallory on the other hand, looked both shocked and disgusted by the display. Duke was at least sixteen years older than Roxie, and an entirely different species. Yet there he was, with the girl straddling his lap while he began to stroke her back slowly. It was like the start of a bad sci-fi porn movie.

"Really sweetheart?" Duke said smoothly, thinking that he had won the lottery. He leant against the back of couch slightly, letting the young girl bring herself closer to his chest, pushing her ample breasts against him. She happened to be wearing tight jeans and a loose blouse that day, which highlighted all of her assets and he greatly appreciated it. He felt her small, soft hands run up his chest and behind his neck, bringing her face closer to his.

"Oh yeah, but then again, I doubt you have the stamina, sweetheart," Roxie whispered smoothly as she stole her bottle back and gracefully climbed off the older duck, grabbing her shoes and taking another swig from the bottle of wine. Duke couldn't help but laugh at the situation, it had been a while since someone had kept him on his toes like that. Like she did almost on a daily basis.

"Duck-boy! Let's party!" Roxie shouted to her friend who had finally broken out of his stupor. He was always slightly stunned when Roxie actually allowed Duke to have that kind of contact with her. He had to keep reminding himself that she wasn't going to do anything with him, though.

"Whatever you say, Roxer-roo! You're all welcome to join, if you think you can keep up with us!" Nosedive exclaimed as he followed her back to the accommodation wing to get changed. He did have the foresight to grab some of the fish curry that they had all been enjoying before Roxie came in, thinking that she probably needed to have something in her stomach soon.

It didn't take long for the two to shower and change for a night out, as they had been going out more over the past year, even before Roxie moved into the Pond. Nosedive came out wearing dark wash designer jeans, and a nice black button downed shirt with his blond mane was tied back in a nice loose ponytail. He did look rather stylish in a laid back kind of way. While Roxie looked stunning in black short shorts, and a loose, sheer, black, sequined top and a skin tight black vest underneath. She had light make-up on her eye but the green that she had chosen wear made her blue eyes pop. She also chose to have deep, red lips and to keep her hair down. She was wearing a nice pair of black heeled sandals to complete her look, given her the added height she also desired. But, combining the heels with the shorts made her toned legs look fantastic.

After a quick snack both the teens headed out to spend the evening bar and club hopping. And, with Nosedive's celebrity status and Roxie's connections, they had gotten onto the list for every VIP section in town. Luckily for both, Nosedive's age wasn't common knowledge as everyone thought he must be over 21 to play professional hockey. While Roxie used her University ID, which made people think that she was in her twenties. The rest of the team decided to join them both after they had finished eating the curry. They then all changed for a night out wearing various levels of dressy or casual clothes. Grin rarely got dressed up, and only when he had to, so he was wearing worn jeans and a shirt. And even that took some work to get him into them. Both Wildwing and Duke dressed in nice shirts and pants, nothing too fancy but dressed up enough that they wouldn't be turned away from the door for being underdressed. The girls had taken the opportunity to get dressed up as they rarely all went out for a ransom night on the town. Mallory chose a short red dress with a flaring skirt, and a pair of black stilettoes, while Tanya went for a pair of dark jeans and a very flattering floaty lilac shirt with some sensible heels. Once they were ready to go they called Johner to see if he would join them, but he told them that he was busy with contracts. And that Roxie had already called him and asked. He also warned them that both Nosedive and Roxie were quite drunk now and told them where to find the two teens. Not that they needed to be told as both Roxie and Nosedive had their communicators on them, which had homing devices.

The group found both teens highly intoxicated and dancing quite energetically at around nine o'clock in one of the clubs downtown. It took a while to get them off the dance floor and to get them to eat something as Wildwing was sure that they hadn't eaten nearly enough to handle the amount of alcohol they were pouring into their systems. Once they had been somewhat fed the two teens began to talk the rest of the ducks into joining in with the celebrations. Unfortunately, Roxie and Nosedive were far too persuasive when together and managed to get the rest of the team very drunk indeed on a multitude of multi-coloured shots. There was also free champagne given to the team courtesy of the bar. And then the tequila shots that Roxie insisted they indulge in. soon they all began to lose track of what they were drinking, and how much.

It didn't take long for the group, even Grin, to be up and getting down on the dancefloor. All the ducks were quite drunk, the worst being Roxie and Nosedive of course, but they were all having such a good time that they really didn't notice. It was very rare for all the ducks to let their hair down and just enjoy a night out as a whole team. Most of the time someone would always stay behind just in case the Saurians caused any trouble. But they had only been defeated a few days ago so it was highly unlikely they would try anything.

The group were all up on the dancefloor, dancing with each other and quite a number of fans. They posed for pictures and signed autographs with a smile, and danced with many of the other people at the club. As well as accepting a few drinks and buying a few drinks for several patrons. Roxie, of course, was having so much fun dancing with her feathered friends that she didn't notice Nosedive, her partner in crime, pass out from the ridiculous amount of tequila shots he had just done with a group of surfers.

Wildwing was the first to notice his brother was slumped on one of the couches that made up the VIP booth and he rushed over as fast as his drunken legs could take him to see if he was alright. It took a few more minutes for the other two males to notice their leaders' absence from the dancefloor and the reason why. Grin was the one who actually noticed and thought he should go to help as he was not as drunk as the others. And he dragged Duke along with him as he didn't like the way the older drake was dancing with his young rainbow-haired friend. It was too close, and too intimate. But since the Sportsmen Dinner all those months back that was how the two had been dancing. The three females didn't even notice at all as they were all having too much fun dancing and singing along to the music. It was one of the few times that all three fiery females got along. And, as soon as Grin and Duke left the dancefloor their places dancing with the three females were replaced with several other young men who were more than happy to step up.

When Duke and Grin eventually reached Wildwing the small group had a very brief discussion about what the team and Roxie should do now that one of their numbers was down. Wildwing and Grin both wanted everyone to leave together, but neither wanted to go and drag the girls off the dancefloor. The three girls would probably kill them for interrupting their good time and living at the Pond would become difficult for the next few days. But they were a little worried about how much they all had to drink. They were especially worried about Roxie, as she had had more to drink than everyone else. She could easily be picked up by one of their enemies, as most now knew that the young woman had become part of the team.

"I'll get her back ok, don't worry 'bout it," Duke said to Wildwing as the younger drake hoisted his brother up with Grin's help.

"You better get her back safe," Wildwing said seriously to the older drake. Grin had also decided to leave with his young friend and leader. He did enjoy having a good time, but the thought of being stuck between the three dancing girls and Duke was enough to kick start the hangover.

"Don't worry 'bout it," Duke said to his leader as he walked the two conscious drakes out of the club before heading back out to the dancefloor to continue dancing with the rainbow haired spitfire. He walked confidently up to the dancing girl and put his hand flat against her stomach pulling her closer to his body. This meant that her back was pressed firmly into his front, sending the clear signal to all the men that had come over while he was absent that she was dancing with him and no one else. The two then began to move with the music, ignoring anything else that was going on around them.

Wildwing had, of course, seen this display and really didn't like the idea of leaving the drunk older drake with a highly intoxicated, highly flirtatious girl. But he really needed to get his younger brother home, besides even Duke had principles. He had often boasted about how the Brotherhood always held itself to a higher moral code than the more common thieves on Puckworld. And Wildwing hoped that that would prevent him from taking advantage of the highly inebriated object of his team mate's affections. Besides, the others were still there, dancing with the two and even trying to get Duke to let go of the girl so they could all dance together. He doubted Mallory would let Duke further than flirty dancing on the dancefloor. With that final thought the three drakes left the rest of their team mates to their celebration.

Roxie still had no idea that her partner in crime had suddenly passed out. She was too busy dancing with a warm and firm body that was currently pressed into her from behind while still downing the occasional shot that came her way. The music and the movement had taken her someplace else and nothing else was going to be noticed other than what was pressed up against her. She didn't want to stop dancing with the person she was dancing with and he kept on pushing away anyone else who tried to penetrate their bubble of movement. She also didn't notice when Mallory and Tanya left, both having decided that they had had enough to drink. And both Mallory and Tanya were too drunk to notice the way that Duke and Roxie continued dancing as they left the dancefloor long before they left the club. And as the night wore on and the club filled with more bodies the two females lost sight of both Roxie and Duke. They merely grabbed their items from the cloakroom and hailed a taxi, leaving the dancing couple to their own devices.

The club became hotter and the dancefloor became fuller, pushing Roxie closer to her partner. Not that she minded of course. She was enjoying the way his large, soft hands had started to run up and down her legs, bringing her flush against the body. It was an amazing feeling that Roxie wanted to encourage, so she pulled the body even closer to hers, running her hands up the face that was now just millimetres from her neck while continuing to dance sensually. There was something hard pressing into her backside, and the body behind her was groaning in frustration and pleasure, sending waves of pleasure through her petite form. Especially when the firm hands began to roam other places, like under her shirt to grope at the bare skin of her toned stomach.

"Let's continue this somewhere more private, Sweetheart," Duke slurred into her ear, slightly nipping it with his beak. Roxie didn't even reply, she just grabbed the roaming hand of the grey drake and dragged him off the dancefloor and out of the club.

What happened next was a complete blur and would only be partially remembered the next morning.

Duke managed to flag down a taxi while he still let his hands roam all over the body of his young companion. It was fairly lucky that they had had the foresight to exit the club through the side entrance bringing them out on a quieter street, so no one was there to witness or photograph the display. The taxi driver who stopped was completely shocked by what he saw. Once the two had climbed into the back of the cab a handful of one hundred dollar bills were thrown into the front of the cab with the instructions to keep quiet and turn off the in car recording system. He was then told to get them back to the Pond as fast as he could. The taxi driver didn't really know what to do other than what he had just been told. So, with one last look at the pair in the back he turned his attention to the road and tried to ignore the noise that was coming from the back of his taxi.

As soon as the taxi started moving Duke returned to what he had been doing before. To finally enjoying the feeling of the being that had been plaguing his thoughts for the last few months. Since that tango all those months ago the thought of finally having this girl submit to his desires had become all consuming. He could feel the girls hand reaching under his shirt, exploring the vast expanses of his torso and that was the last conscious thought he had before he surrendered and allowed his instincts to take over.

The entire taxi ride was filled with firm but sensual touches and moans of pleasure. By the time they arrived at the Pond Duke's shirt was completely unbuttoned while Roxie's hair was in completely disarray. When the taxi stopped in front of the back entrance of the Pond neither noticed. They were too involved in what they were doing. The taxi driver had to clear his throat loudly a few times before Duke noticed that they had stopped. The two still didn't stop what they were doing, but somehow managed to stumble out of the cab and get in through the side door. The taxi driver watched with stunned fascination as the couple still managed to stay attached to each other while they disappeared into the building. He couldn't help but think the next time he was having a one-up-man-ship contest with his fellow drivers he was going to win, hands down. With that thought he drove off and tried not to think what that couple was going to get up to tonight.

As soon as they were in the door Duke had pushed Roxie against it, licking and nipping at her neck while she moaned in pleasure, spurring the older drake on. The noise that she was making was driving him crazy but he needed more.

It took a lot of manoeuvring for Duke and Roxie to finally make it to the locker room. there was the slight hold up as Roxie managed to make Duke stumble into the boards as she pinned him there while she undid his zipper. She then spun on her heel and sauntered saucily towards the locker room

"Now someone's definitely a naughty girl," Duke crooned as he pushed himself off the boards and gave chase to the teasing creature. When he caught up with her, he grabbed her and spun them into the lockers with a loud crash. Even the sudden pain from the impact wasn't enough to bring the two out of the haze of lust that was clouding their minds and they merely continued with their sensual caresses.

"The elevator," Roxie managed to mumble out as Duke's hand had found its way under shirt.

"Impatient, Angel?" Duke crooned out against the soft skin of her collarbone, sending vibrations through her overly sensitive skin. He then grabbed her by her backside, hoisting her up so that Roxie's legs wrapped around his body. In this position she could kissing along his beak and running her fingers through his feathers while he moved them both towards the elevator and somehow managed to punch in his security code.

As soon as the elevator opened the two managed to stumble into the enclosed space. And, once again, Duke had pinned Roxie against a hard surface.

"Oh I've waited a long time to have you pinned under me, and I'm gonna enjoy every second of," Duke slurred out with his trademark smirk still in place.

"I don't know, I'm pretty sure you're still all talk and no act…" Roxie began to say saucily but stopped with a gasp when she felt Duke's hand dip into her shorts. It wasn't long before she began to cry out in pleasure, considering how turned on she already was.

"You were saying, Angel," Duke said huskily against her ear, nipping it lightly.

When the elevator eventually stopped at the underground base Roxie pushed Duke off of her body and out of the doors. She then sauntered out, enjoying the way the drake's eyes were entirely focused on her movements. She stopped when she got to the large couches, bent over to undo the straps of her shoes, giving Duke an excellent view of her toned backside. She could hear him groan and was sure that she heard the word tease.

Once she had stepped out of the high heeled shoes and put her bare feet flat on the ground, she slowly rolled her body up to standing. She looked casually over her shoulder to catch the almost predatory look of desire on Duke's face.

In a mere instant the two were once again engaged in a battle of passion, hitting wall after wall, giggling madly, as they made their way noisily towards Duke's bedroom. Luckily for them, the rooms in the Pond had all been soundproofed and the everyone else were already in bed as it was after three in the morning. Through the drunken haze of alcohol and lust the two somehow made it to the end of the hall and Duke's addled brain somehow managed to remember his code to enter his room.

As soon as the door was open Duke grabbed Roxie almost violently and threw her into the ultra-neat and obsessively tidy room, which no one else had ever entered. Privacy was a very big issue with the drake. That was why his bunk was the only room to have an eight-digit code rather than a four. When the doors closed Duke locked it down, so no one could get in even if they did have the code.

The two stared each other down, breathing heavily from the exertion and pleasure that they had already experienced. The alcohol and lust was still coursing through their veins, causing the more logical parts of their brains to shut down, allowing the more impulsive thoughts to dictate their actions. This was the last opportunity both would have to stop what they were doing, before it went any further. But neither did.

Duke finally stalked towards Roxie causing the young woman to let out a shriek as he grabbed her once again and pinned her against the wall knocking the photos from their hooks. But Roxie wasn't about to let him control the situation and she pushed him into the bookcase causing several books to fall from their shelves. It became a battle for dominance with both Roxie and Duke refusing to relent and causing several bruises and broken knick-knacks. It was Duke who finally got the upper hand by once again grabbing the girl before he deposited her on his desk, knocking everything onto the floor. He groaned out her name as he felt her hands running all over his chest and back as he once again began to nip and kiss along her slender neck. He shrugged off his shirt before he grabbed the hem of hers and yanked it over her head and tossed it behind him, forgetting that she had another layer on underneath it. He let out a groan of frustration when he realised that her tanned body was not exposed. Roxie took the cue and removed the skin tight black vest, allowing Duke to gaze appreciatively at her wined coloured lacey bra.

Roxie barely had the time to get her breath back before Duke was once again attacking her skin with his beak and hands. He pulled her flush against his body and began to grind against her once again, allowing her to feel how excited he was. Another way that the humanoid duck species were compatible with the humans on Earth, their reproductive anatomy. He was actually so lost in the feeling of her body rubbing up against his that he didn't notice her hand roughly stroking the side of his face and hooking under the eye patch that he had never taken off in front of anyone.

It actually took Duke a few moments to notice that the prosthetic covering had been removed from his face and the tickling sensation was in fact Roxie tracing the line of his scar. But once he did, he jumped back in shock and moved to grab the patch once again. His libido had suddenly taken a hit and fear seeped into his veins as the half-naked girl just stared at the disfigurement. That was when Roxie reached over and pulled Duke back to her body. She then stretched up and began to lightly trace the scar with her lips, causing Duke to groan out in pleasure and shock at the intense feeling.

"Oh, I knew you were going to be unforgettable," Duke growled out before grabbing Roxie roughly by the backside and tossing her onto the bed. She squeaked as she landed on the soft surface but didn't have much time to recover from the shock of the sudden change of positions. As soon as she was on the bed Duke grabbed a hold of her black shorts and pulled them quickly down her legs, exposing more skin to his ravenous eyes and revealing a pair of matching wine coloured lace shorts. He then pushed his dark slacks and shorts down and climbed on top of the nearly naked girl.

Now, it had been almost four years since the last time Duke had been intimate with anyone and having Roxie almost completely naked, underneath him and urging him to continue had fried his brain. His self-control was gone and he growled as he ripped the lacy material from her body. He had always been a more dominant lover and was often told that he was a little too rough, but it seemed the rougher he got the more Roxie was turned on. And this just created a vicious cycle of orgasmic proportions as Duke finally got the girl naked.

Over the last few months Duke had visited the Birdcage often to watch Roxie dance. And, due to her style of dancing and the costumes that accompanied it, he had seen the girl almost naked several times. He had also seen her flushed with joy and excitement, as well as physical activity. But, seeing her laid out before him, like a meal he was about to consume, was something entirely different.

They both took a moment to drunkenly appreciate the flesh that was before them with large, hungry eyes. Then that moment was over and the two horny being were clawing, biting, nipping and sucking at the flesh that was on offer. The fight for dominance once again began, with the two rolling around the bed trying to find traction. In this struggle everything on one of the bedside tables managed to get kicked to the floor, including something glass that smashed instantly. Yet, neither being either heard nor cared, they were too busy with each other's bodies.

The pleasure that Duke was getting from exploring the body of his new lover was extraordinary. He had no idea how sensual the bare skin would feel under his fingertips, and it was all bare skin. Roxie was so responsive to his touch, and had instantly submitted to his will in bed, allowing him to be as dominant and rough as he desired. And what he desired merely spurred the girl on more. Even through his drunken lust he was able to control what he was doing and explore ways to bring his partner to new realms of pleasure.

Roxie on the other hand had lost all power of rational thought. The feeling of soft feathers skimming over sensitive erogenous zones, while firm and well-toned muscular hand kneaded and gripped her flesh had sent her to new levels of pleasures. Yet she needed more, she needed to feel completeness. And she began to beg for more, urging her partner to take her completely.

"Please, I need, I need, mo.…or… ah!" Roxie screamed out as Duke complied and thrust his full, slightly curved, length into her waiting core without any second thoughts or hesitation. It was enough to make her tumble over the edge for the first time that evening. Duke allowed her a few moments to calm down and to fully enjoy the fluttering of her walls against his maleness.

"Calm down, Kid, we've got all night, and I'm gonna make every second count," Duke ground out next to her ear, nipping it slightly and causing another moan of pleasure. He then grabbed hold of the top of the bedstead and Roxie's leg, pulling it up higher on his body, sinking deeper into the hot body beneath him. Then he began thrusting, long and hard thrusts that moved the body and bed beneath him.

What he was doing was controlled but caused an incredible frenzy within both Duke and Roxie. And each thrust brought Roxie closer to edge and caused her to tumble off of it, this time bringing Duke with her. Lucky for Duke he had learned a very valuable skill many years ago. The ability to keep an erection through multiple orgasms. And he was going to enjoy every moment that that skill gave him. Plus he had the stamina that he built up through years of being at the peak of physical fitness and playing professional hockey.

As the night wore on the two managed to get through as many positions as they could. Screaming each other's name with each orgasm, and spurring the other on to more. They both lost count of how many times they came and how many positions they got into. Or what other random item was destroyed by their vigorous copulation.

Eventually though they had spent so much energy and couldn't last much longer. And Duke couldn't hold on much longer. Avians were able keep an erection longer than humans, and Duke could keep one longer than anyone else he knew. But the pleasure was too much but he was going to make sure that Roxie came one more time before he finished. That didn't take too long as her entire body was overstimulated. So, when she fell over the edge for the last time he finally came with complete finality and spilled his seed within his lover. He screamed her name over and over again as he rode out his final orgasm before losing all strength and passing out into sweet oblivion with Roxie.

* * *

Please rate and review, and if you think I should change the rating, or continue with the explicit material let me know.

TFG


	7. Chapter Seven

Hello,

I know, I felt sorry for Nosedive too. I really like his character, but I loved it when Duke and Nosedive competed for Lucretia, I thought it was hilarious and not something you saw in a cartoon. Kinda building on that, slightly.

Enjoy

TFG

* * *

Chapter Seven

It took maybe two seconds into consciousness before the hangover crept in and caused Duke to wish he was still asleep. Usually the older drake was a morning person, and would be up as soon as the ambient light that Tanya had programmed into the underground base to simulate the light of day started to change to mimic the dawn. But today, all he wanted to do was roll back over and go back to sleep. Unfortunately, that was impossible, as he was such a light sleeper and once he was awake, he was awake. Besides, he had stuff to do and a horrendous headache to medicate. And there was also the thought that something was terribly wrong and that he felt extremely sore. Like he had just played a really intense and brutal game of hockey.

With a groan Duke opened both his eyes, realising that he actually managed to remove his patch. The last time that he had not removed the sensitive piece of equipment from his face he had had trouble recalibrating it for a week. It was a very precise prosthesis, and it needed the adjustment of being put on each morning to make sure that it worked correctly. But this meant that his overly sensitive, scarred eye had to deal with the morning light. And with a hangover as well, the artificial morning light was almost like a new form of torture.

He tried to blink the horrible light out of his eye before he even considered moving. Luckily, years of training himself to wake up before an alarm had made him wake up early enough that it was still rather dull in the room. with a sigh Duke turned to see what time it was on the clock radio that was sitting on his left hand side bedside table. Or the clock radio that was supposed to be sitting on that table, as the irritating piece of equipment was not where it was supposed to be.

"Great," Duke said with a great sense of irritation. He must have been drunker than he thought when he eventually came in and he must have knocked the blasted thing off the table. He could also see that this eye-patch wasn't anywhere on the table either, and that caused him to become even more annoyed at the situation. And that was when he noticed the wall next to his bed. The one that contained the bookcase that was now missing several plaques, trophies, trinkets and books.

Now, Duke was not a stranger to alcohol, or alcohol fuelled crazy nights. But, it had been a very long time since he had been black out drunk and destroyed his room. The last time that had happened was during his grief at his younger sister's incarceration, when he had ripped everything from the walls and destroyed the piano that reminded him too much of her. But this time he had no idea what could have caused him to total his extremely organised and tidy room. from what he remembered it had been a great night that had been so much fun. There had been dancing, drinking, more dancing, then a lot more drinking. His brain started to hurt and his memory got fuzzy as he tried to recall anything that had happened after Wildwing, Grin and Nosedive had left the club.

"Oh, this is gonna be a bad day," Duke said as he brought his right hand up to rub his face. And that was when he finally realised what was wrong and what had actually caused his to wake up so early. He had one hand on his face and two hands on his bare chest.

Duke was suddenly wide awake and staring intently at the ceiling as his tender brain churned over all the information that was available. His destroyed room suddenly made a lot more sense, as he had been told that he was quite a rough lover. And the last time he had been intimate was a very hard quickie against a wall that caused quite a bit of property damage. But his mind was drawing a blank over who it could be.

He couldn't decide what would make the situation worse. If the body lying next to him was a duck, then he had completely screwed up the team dynamics. If it was a human, then that would be a PR nightmare for the team as he had no idea how the public would handle the news of an interspecies one-night stand. Plus, that would mean he had brought a random member of the public into the Pond in a drunken haze.

With a deep, not so calming breath, Duke finally looked down at his chest to see a bare, five fingered, slightly tanned hand.

"Well," thought Duke, "at least I didn't fuck Mallory."

He then followed the toned, slender arm all the way to the head of rainbow hair that had spread over one of his pillows. But not enough to obscure the still blissfully sleeping face of the only human who was permitted to be in the Pond.

If Duke was scared of the repercussions before it was nothing to what he felt now. He was completely terrified. Not only had he had sex with one of the few humans they trusted on the planet, but he had also had sex with a girl who was almost half his age. Plus, there was the fact that she was best friends with one of his team mates, who happened to be the younger brother of his captain. And there was the little fact that they all lived together. If someone found out what had happened, then everything that they had worked hard to achieve within the team would be lost. And all for a one-night stand that he couldn't even remember.

That might be the piece of information that hurt the most. The fact that he had finally gotten Roxie naked and in bed and he couldn't remember it. With any luck the memory might come back because looking at the complete state of disarray that his room was now in, Duke was sure that the night would have been unforgettable. If he could remember it. What a horrible twist of irony.

But he was digressing. He needed to focus on what to do and not the fact that Roxie was still naked and gripping slightly onto his chest feathers.

"Even when she's sleeping she's a tease," Duke said, exasperated at the situation before he clamped his beak shut as tightly as he could and hoped to any god that would listen that he didn't wake the sleeping girl up. Luckily for him, Roxie may be the deepest sleeper he had ever met in his life. The girl had actually once managed to sleep through one of their games while she was sitting in the front row and didn't wake up until Nosedive actually shook her awake once everyone had left. He carefully stole a glance at the girls sleeping feature and breathed a sigh of relief. As long as she was still asleep he had time to figure out what to do.

Hopefully it was still early enough that everyone else was still sleeping as well. And if he couldn't remember anything that happened the night before then there was a very good chance that she wouldn't either. And, since she was such a deep sleeper, there was a good chance that he could get her back to her room before she woke up. But there was still a chance that she could remember their night together.

"Well, he would just need to play it off as a sex dream", Duke thought sneakily. That was until he looked past the sleeping girl's face and focused on her exposed back.

The good thing about being a duck is having quite thick plumage that completely covered almost all body surfaces. Except some pads on their fingers, feet and genitals. As a result, you rarely saw any decolourisation of skin, unless you had extremely light plumage like Wildwing. Duke could always feel bruises for days afterwards, but you could actually see the horrible purple welts through Wildwing's light feathers. And that always made him feel worse. The only thing that could be seen on Duke were the scars that crisscrossed his body and face. And Duke preened meticulously every day to make sure that his facial feathers covered the parts of his scar that weren't covered by his patch. Human's, on the other hand, did not have this luxury. And now that he was looking at Roxie, and not just her face, Duke could see exactly how rough he had been with her during their night of passion.

There was a huge bruise that ran over almost the entirety of her back where he had almost certainly thrown her into a bookcase. There was also huge, four-fingered, hand-print bruise on her arm and on her collarbone where he had obviously gripped her far too strongly. The one that went across the front of her neck looked extremely nasty but also gave Duke a shameful sense of pride. Looks like Roxie was definitely on the kinky side he thought to himself. Then there were the bruises that must have been made by his beak, from biting by the looks of it. He could actually feel some sensitive places on his body, mainly his neck and stomach where she had obviously returned the favour.

Looking at the collection of bruises that were covering the small area of skin that he could see made his thankful that he had never been able to see bruises through his previous lover's feathers. If this is what he did to everyone he slept with then he was seriously going to consider never sleeping with anyone ever again. It looked so brutal. Yet, the young woman was sleeping quite soundly, with the hint of a smile on her face.

The bruises were definitely going to cause a problem for him. There was no way now he could just deposit her in her own room and hope that any memory she had of their night together would just be passed off as a kinky dream. But as long as she was asleep he would have time to think of what to do.

And that was the moment fate decided to figuratively kick him in nuts.

Duke had completely miscalculated what time it was. He would usually wake up himself almost half an hour and would be showered and dressed before the alarm clock blared out it's annoying beep. That morning was not one of those mornings. As the sudden, loud, high pitched beeping of his alarm clock sounded from somewhere under his bed causing the warm body next to him to groan into consciousness.

She moved groggily trying to fight the steady return into the land of the living. She was muttering to herself about evils of ducks and early mornings, completely oblivious to her bed companion. Until she moved her hand to push herself up and felt the feathery torso underneath it.

Roxie had stilled completely and her body looked tense, as if afraid to move. Duke was frozen as well, as he watched to see the reaction of the naked girl. He actually heard her gulp before she turned her bright blue eyes and met his dark orbs.

"Duke?" Roxie said, almost shocked by the drake who was sharing the bed with her.

"Expecting someone else, Sweetheart?" Duke answered, slightly taken aback by the tone of her voice. The girl merely looked at him, before looking around the room and taking in the state of the normally neat room. She could see items of clothing hanging from various pieces of furniture, as well as all the other items that had been knocked down. Duke could almost see the wheels in her head turning, trying to process what had happened, and it was obvious that she didn't remember much of the previous evening either.

"Do you have any clothes on?" Roxie eventually asked after she moved a little further back from Duke, taking some sheets with her. She was trying to cover up her body as she realised that she was in fact completely naked.

"No," Duke said simply, not finding any amusement in the situation that the two had found themselves in.

"Right. But we didn't have se…ex," Roxie started saying before she moved her legs from between Duke's, and the pain of tired and overused muscle's shot through her body. Obviously confirming what she feared to acknowledge. She then closed her eyes and breathed a very deep, soothing breath.

"Do you remember anything?" Roxie said after a few minutes of complete silence.

"No, do you?" Duke said, sitting up a little gingerly. Various parts of his body were complaining from overuse, but in a very satisfying way. A way that he hadn't felt in years. The girl beside him just answered with a shake of her head and he could almost see the cogs starting to turn in her head. He, of course knew what was about to come out of her mouth next, as he had had that exact idea.

"You know, if you don't remember and I don't remember, then who's to say what really actually happened. I say we just don't mention it to, well anyone, and never speak of it again," Roxie said as she sat up next to Duke, taking as much of the covers with her as she could. She sat back against the headboard and instantly became uncomfortable, very confused as to what could be causing her intense discomfort.

"Well, that would work, Sweetheart, if not for one small problem," Duke said, slightly concerned over Roxie's reaction as he pointed to the mirror on the wall next to the bed. The girl followed his extended finger and saw the reflection of her bare back in the mirror and was absolutely horrified.

The bruise extended almost from neck, all the way down her spine, to the lower back. And it covered most of the expanse of her back. It was a deep, horrible purple that looked sickly against her lightly tanned skin. Roxie quickly scanned the rest of her body in the mirror, before looking at her actual skin in complete disbelief. She was absolutely covered in a multitude of oddly shaped, bright purple bruises. There were some from what looked like flat surfaces, impact bruises, four-fingered hand print bruises, and long bruises like hickies.

"What the hell did you do to me! I can't work looking like this!" Roxie exclaimed before going off on a long tirade. If she was covered in bruises, then she couldn't dance until they faded. They could cover up small bruises and cuts, but the sheer amount that were peppering her body would be impossible to cover up during dancing. Especially since they were all on places that needed to be exposed while she danced. And, since she was actually still underage, she couldn't make up the shifts by working at the bar like some of the other dancers did when they had a night with a little too much passion. That meant, she was going to be down at least three weeks' pay, maybe even more. On top of actually finding herself in bed with an alien, it was a little too much to deal with while having a raging hangover.

Duke, meanwhile, just let Roxie continue to berate him in silence. The kid needed to get all this out and off her chest if they were going to have anything resembling normality when they eventually walked out of that door. He just thanked Tanya forethought for making all the rooms sound proof, as Roxie was really raising her voice.

Then, she suddenly went silent. Which was entirely odd. During her lengthy tirade Duke had just been staring at his hands folded neatly in his lap. But due to the echoing silence he looked up to find Roxie just staring at him with something resembling curiosity and concern. He had no idea what had caused the very sudden change in demeanour, until she reached out a very delicate hand and ran her finger down the full length of the scar on his face.

"I thought it was just gone, I didn't know it was so badly hurt," Roxie said softly, looking at the spider web of pink lines running over the pearly white orb. She was tracing the flesh scar, that wasn't being covered by Dukes extreme hairdo. It looked like it would have been painful.

It was an extremely intimate gesture. One that he should have expected from an awfully curious who was friends with several aliens. Yet, Duke was not expecting it and was just frozen in place for a little while. He was wide-eyed with fear and afraid to move, in case he freaked the girl out more. Eventually, Roxie realised what she was doing and became aware of Duke's fearful reaction. She retracted her hand, apologised, and both became silent again. Staring, fixedly, in front of them and making very sure not to look at the other.

After a few moments Roxie finally noticed the eye-patch that was hanging precariously off the lamp on the desk. She really didn't want to move, in case she exposed herself more, but she really wanted to get out of the room. with all the strength of will and skill of delicate movement, she managed to pull out the sheet and secure it completely around herself. She could feel Duke's eyes watching her as she went and could almost feel his longing gaze on her body. She reached over and plucked the patch from lamp before handing it over to the drake, who took it gratefully from the girl.

Roxie then began her search for her underwear and clothes as Duke adjusted the sensors slightly so he could see from that eye once again. Once that was done he finally spotted Roxie's elusive underwear, which were hanging from the top of the headboard. He unhooked the wine-coloured lacy material from its hanging place, appreciating her choice of undergarment, before clearing his throat to get the girls attention.

When she turned around, Roxie saw her bra and panties hanging loosely from Duke's extended finger. She also saw the trademark smirk back in place and had a desire to beat it off of him, but first she would get dresses. She snatched the underwear and held up to put it on, and that's when she realised another problem. Both the bra and panties were ripped to shreds and were now of no use to man nor beast.

"I'll replace those," Duke said quickly as Roxie let out the sigh of irritation.

"Kid, why don't you just come back to…" Duke continued before Roxie cut him off.

"Don't you dare finish that sentence Duke L'Orange! I'm going to get dressed, leave then shower, in that order. Then I'm going to forget this morning ever happened and I really suggest you do the same thing!" Roxie shouted before she went around the room picking up her clothes to put them on or throwing Duke's clothes at him. The drake finally began to move as well, albeit slower than she was. He was obviously going to have to talk about what happened another time, when she wasn't as stressed as she was now.

Meanwhile, the morning after was happening in other areas of the Pond as well. Though, not nearly as stressful as what was happening in Duke's room.

Wildwing had, of course, woken up early to get a morning skate and run, as had been his routine since he was fifteen. He was currently sitting at the breakfast table with a mountain of fruit and toast, as well as the obligatory cup of coffee. He had had a fairly relaxed morning so far, his hangover was fairly mild and the paper had been delivered on time. Plus, there was nothing scheduled for the day, apart from practice that afternoon. All in all, it felt like it was going to be a good day.

About half way through his relaxed breakfast Nosedive finally emerged from his room with a major headache and joined his brother for breakfast. The younger drake didn't look as nearly well put together as his older brother. His yellow mane hadn't been combed and he was wearing a pair of baggy jeans and his training jersey. Things that had obviously been on his bedroom floor.

"Feeling rough, baby bro?" Wildwing asked with a half-cocked smile over his cup of coffee.

"No words, words hurt my head. Coffee is life, give me coffee!" Nosedive said through a grimace of pain, taking the coffee that his brother offered and declining all food. He exclaimed in pain when the doors opened far too loudly for his taste, allowing Tanya, Grin and Mallory to come in for breakfast. Each complaining of their hangovers but all agreeing that it was a fun night out. One that should actually be repeated and a lot more often. The other ducks then sat down at the table, still talking too loudly for Nosedive. The group of five then began to chow down on the food that Wildwing had had the foresight to prepare.

"Hey, where's Duke and Roxie?" Nosedive asked after a while, noticing that his friend hadn't come in yet.

"Don't know, haven't seen them since we left the club last night," Mallory said as she began to eat her cereal.

"Wait, they didn't leave with you two?" Wildwing asked, receiving a negative answer from the two females. He already had an idea of what had happened, as he saw the way Duke was touching Roxie last night while he was dancing with her, and the way she was also touching him. Though he hoped that he was wrong. He was unsure of what his brother's relationship was with the girl, but he was sure it was a lot more than just friends.

Nosedive on the hand had put two and two together quite quickly and had sprang from his seat to towards the accommodation wing, closely followed by his concerned older brother. He raced to her door and was about to knock on it when another door opened down the hallway. It was Duke's door but it wasn't Duke who was leaving his room.

Roxie looked completely dishevelled and sloppily dressed, with her rainbow hair in disarray and she wasn't wearing any shoes. Nosedive could see bruises on her slightly tanned skin where a beak had noticeably nipped at the tender skin. There were also four fingered handprints across her thighs and waist, ones that could not have come from a human. As well as a horrible purple bruise running across the front of her neck. She was obviously planning on heading back to her room to shower and dress for the day, forgetting the night had ever happened, but when she saw Nosedive standing next to her door she froze. She couldn't move and could only watch Nosedive silently stalk towards her, taking in her appearance. Once he was right in front of her he peered into the room that she was trying to vacate.

The sight that greeted Nosedive wasn't any better than the one in the hallway and definitely confirmed what he suspected. Duke was quickly trying to get dressed, only barely managing to pull on his boxer briefs. His eye patch was also on slightly awkwardly, with his facial plumage out of place around it. His room looked like a tornado hit it, which was unusual for the neat freak compartmentaliser. When he heard the noise at his door he looked up to see Nosedive evaluating what he was seeing, and he couldn't help but look guilty at the younger drake.

"I, Dive, we…" Roxie tried to explain but could not finish. What could she really say? That she had gotten drunk and had a night of wild sex with one of his team mates that she actually couldn't remember. That all the bruises that were covering her skin was from all the ways that Duke had obviously fucked her senseless?

"What…Why?" Nosedive tried to say looking between the two. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. His best friend had chosen another drake over him. It felt like his heart had been ripped from his chest and he could barely look at either of them.

"I, uh, I guess I did have the stamina after all…" Duke started to joke with a nervous laugh, hoping to lighten the situation. In hindsight it was the entirely wrong thing to do.

All Nosedive saw was someone who was flaunting sleeping with his best friend to his face. So, he reacted accordingly. He pushed Roxie out of the way of the entrance and launched himself across the room, tackling Duke to the ground. He was trying to pummel the older drake, hitting every available body part that was in sight, and Duke was letting him. He was only seeing red and didn't hear Roxie when she screamed at him to stop. Nosedive didn't even notice when the other members of the team ran into the room, drawn in by all the shouting and screaming. He also didn't notice as his older brother and Grin pried him off the black, blue and bleeding male.

It would have been impossible to get Nosedive to calm down and listen to reason. Or to get him to look at the two, who he felt, had betrayed him. No one tried to stop him when he stormed out of Duke's room, and the Pond, intent of getting some alone time anywhere but there. By this time everyone was in Duke's room, having been attracted by the sounds of angry yelling and fighting. When Nosedive stormed out no one really knew what to do or say, especially to the two that had been the cause of the outburst. One of whom was still dressed only in his underwear and currently being helped off the floor by Grin. Though Mallory did make some snide comments in the direction of Roxie, who had sunk down on the bed to slightly wallow in her bad choices.

"Come on, everyone, back to what you were doing," Wildwing said ushering everyone out of Duke's room and closing the door behind him. Leaving Duke and Roxie alone to try and digest what had just happened. It took a few minutes of uncomfortable silence before Duke finally mustered up the courage to address what had happened.

"Look, sweetheart, I'm sorry about what just happened here. I didn't, I mean, you always turned me down before when I got that close. I didn't think that this would actually happen," Duke said as he put on his pants, still looking the girl up and down. Duke wished that he could remember the particulars but he was sure that he would be hard pressed to remember another night of sex that would rank anywhere close to the night he just spent with Roxie.

"Though, I'm really not that sorry 'bout the night itself, I only wish I could remember it," Duke finished, looking Roxie up and down. He was starting to get a familiar stirring in his groin. Seeing the girl sitting on his bed, sloppily dressed and still looking thoroughly sexed up. He moved closer to the girl and tried to pull her closer to his body again. The fact that the girl hadn't shied away when he wasn't wearing his eyepatch, revealing the large scar that went across his eye, was a huge turn on.

"Don't, please just don't. I have to fix this," Roxie said as she moved back from him. She jumped up, off the bed, and opened the door. She then turned on her heel and walked down the corridor towards her own room, leaving Duke to the cold shower that he obviously needed.

During the most of the day the rest of the team didn't see hide nor feather of either Duke or Nosedive. And they didn't hear a peep from Roxie. It wasn't until the early afternoon practice that Duke eventually showed his face, appearing mostly dressed in the training gear and bypassing the locker room completely. Both Tanya and Mallory began to whisper between them about what had happened and it was only through Wildwing's intervention that an argument was avoided. The young leader thought that is might also be in everyone's best interest to cut this practice short and only work on some fundamentals, instead of having a full practice. That way, everyone could leave early and not talk to one another.

Nosedive didn't return to the Pond until after six that evening, arriving just in time for the teams evening practice. When he entered the locker room the rest of the ducks watched him as he quietly tied his skates and skated onto the ice with his stick. Stopping angrily opposite Duke to do their usual passing practice. The practice continued as it normally did, if a little more violently, and silent.

After practice the mood in the locker room was tense. No one really knew what to say to Nosedive, or Duke for that matter. Andy they still hadn't seen hide nor hair of Roxie all day. After a few minutes Duke tried to approach Nosedive, but the teen stopped him dead.

"Not one word," Nosedive said coldly to the former thief as he focused on removing his practice gear.

"Look, it's not like I did anything wrong!" Duke yelled running his hand through his mane, frustrated at the kid's attitude. As far as everyone knew the kid and Roxie weren't together, so she actually was far game.

"Yeah, I mean it's not you haven't stolen anything before!" Nosedive yelled back petulantly, standing up angrily.

"I didn't steal her, she came willingly, maybe if you'd grown some balls and asked her out this wouldn't have happened!" Duke yelled, the two drake's beak to beak.

"I did!" Nosedive yelled back. He stopped once he realised what he had said and that the others were staring at him now. He sighed despondently and sank down onto the bench to think about that night.

It was a painful memory for the young drake. That was night of the Sportsmen Dinner all those months ago. After the event had closed and after that dance between Duke and Roxie, Nosedive had been invited out by some of the younger players from various different sports teams. And, of course, Roxie joined her best friend as she still didn't know what to really think.

They had gone to a few clubs and had a few more drinks. And this time Roxie would only dance with Nosedive. Other players kept on asking her out on the dancefloor, but she refused and continued to have a great time with her best friend. As the night wore on and Nosedive had had enough alcohol to give him the necessary confidence boost he began to run his beak across the rainbow hairline of his friend. And she smiled and leaned into him. He thought that she was enjoying the feeling and that her feelings towards him matched his, so he led her off the dancefloor to somewhere quieter. There, he finally spilled his changing feelings to her, saying that he was unsure of what he was feeling, but he knew that he wanted more from their relationship.

The look on her face had been enough to tell him that she didn't feel the same. She tried to tell him gently that she didn't feel that way about him and that they should go back inside and continue their good time. But after any reaction it would be impossible to carry on. The two then got a taxi back to Pond and didn't speak of the event again. It had taken weeks before they were able to move on and begin to enjoy each other's company fully again.

"She said, she said that we were friends, and that it would be a mistake. That she didn't want to jeopardise what we had," Nosedive said defeated, after sitting on the bench in silence and staring down at his hands and remembering that night.

"I don't understand why she would, you know, with you instead of going out with me," Nosedive said, finally meeting the older drakes' eye. His eyes were glassy from the unshed tears and he seemed so raw, so vulnerable that it made Duke's heart ache.

"Maybe I don't mean as much to her as you do," Duke said simply before leaving to take a shower in his room. The other ducks decided to leave Nosedive alone with his brother to talk about the incident, thinking that it would be the best course of action. They actually sat in silence for a long time before Wildwing got the courage to speak.

"Listen, Dive, I really think you and Roxie need to talk about this. You're best friends after all, and a friend like that doesn't come along very often. Yes, what she did was, was hurtful, but I honestly don't think she did it to hurt you. She loves you. Maybe not the way you want, but she does," Wildwing said sympathetically thinking about the friend that he had lost. He then got up to leave so that his brother could think about what he should do.

Nosedive decided to head back onto the ice for a quiet skate. As this was where he did most of his thinking, same as his brother. After much soul searching the young drake eventually found himself outside his friend's door. It took a lot for him to knock and wait for the answer. It took a while for the girl to appear, but Nosedive waited.

"Dive," Roxie said once she had answered her door, obviously shocked that he was standing there. The drake then breezed past the shocked girl, quickly entering the room that he had helped decorate all those months ago.

It had started out as a storage room, a place to keep things that the ducks no longer needed but couldn't get rid of. It was smaller than most of the other personal rooms, due to the fact that it was never designed to house another person. It was painted a light blue colour and had light oak furniture. It was also covered in so many posters, pictures and magazine cuttings that you could instantly feel Roxie's personality. And Nosedive loved spending time in this room with his friend. They would often have their study sessions in her room, as it was designed more for academic pursuits that his room.

The two friends stared at each other in complete silence. Nosedive couldn't help but think that Roxie looked somehow diminished, like she wasn't as vibrant as before. Which was actually true. Her hair had merely been brushed back and out of the way, and she was wearing yoga pants and long-sleeved, high-necked undershirt. Obviously trying to hide as many of the bruises as she could. She was also being quiet and looked so ashamed. Now that was something to break his heart. He knew that this girl would never do anything to intentionally hurt him, but she obviously was being wrecked by guilt because she had hurt him.

"I know, you're surprised, but I really wanted to talk to you, and I haven't seen you all day! I just wanted to know, why him? Why him and not me? I mean, I think I'd be a good boyfriend, I mean a lot better than Duke, so why? Uh, going somewhere Roxer-roo?" Nosedive rambled as he paced the room, eventually noticing that Roxie had begun to pack.

"Yeah, I thought that I'd find somewhere else to live, I don't want to cause any more problems here," Roxie said sadly. She didn't want to leave as she loved living at the Pond, but she really didn't want to upset her friend.

"I don't want you to go," Nosedive said, looking his friend in the eye. He then moved to hug his friend. He had missed her that day.

"I don't want to go either," Roxie replied, hugging her friend tightly. She had missed him holding her.

"Why him, though? And why not me?" Dive asked quietly.

"I was drunk; it really didn't mean anything. Dive, you're the best friend I've ever had, I don't want to do anything to ruin that, and that actually includes a relationship with me. If you hadn't noticed already, I'm fairly toxic, and this is the healthiest relationship I've actually ever had," Roxie answered.

"But we could be good together," Dive said, still not releasing his friend from their hug. But, Roxie eventually moved away so she could look Nosedive in eye.

"We could, and I wish I felt that way about you, Dive. But I don't. I do really love you though, possibly more than any other guy I've ever met. But it's a different kind of love. And, I'm sure once you think about it, you'll realise that's how you feel too," Roxie said, eyes glassy and voice cracking due to all the emotion she had poured into her speech.

"I love you too, Roxie. I really do. I'm just so confused right now. I know I love you, and I've never felt that way 'bout anyone before you, and, I don't know, I really just want someone," Nosedive said with a sigh as he sank down on the comfy bed.

"I really wish I could you the love you deserve. But I will promise to give you all the love I can give you as your best friend," Roxie said sitting down next to the drake. He then threw his arm around her and pulled her into another hug.

"I think that would work. Just, don't do Duke again, ok Roxer-roo. You can do better after all," Nosedive said with an unamused laugh.

"You're never gonna let me forget that, are you? I was super drunk, and besides, that itch has now been scratched. It won't happen again," Roxie said, joining in with the giggles.

There was a lot more talking needed for the two friends to actually sort through the problem. They talked through most of the night, only stopping for food and drinks. It took a lot work afterwards for them to work out the problem. But, eventually, Nosedive realised that he did love Roxie but in a purely platonic way. That his confusion was due to the fact that he had never had a friend like Roxie before and he just didn't want to share her. And that the crush he had on her was signalling that maybe he wanted to have a relationship with someone.

Roxie, for her part, tried to do everything she could to make it up to Nosedive. She also held back on all her flirting as much as possible. She was a lot more honest with Nosedive about her feelings and about her actions, and Nosedive returned that favour too.

And it took a lot for Nosedive and Duke to see eye to eye again. Nosedive never really did forgive him for taking that night with Roxie, but Duke was willing to try to make it up to him, and Nosedive let him. He also held up on the flirting. Unfortunately, every time he caught sight of Roxie he got another flash of memory of that night together. It was hard not be affected by her presence in the room when every time he saw her he could her the echoes of her cries of passion ringing through his brain.

Yet, it all managed to work out, somehow. If only for a while.

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TFG


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